The German automaker announced today it will create another line at the plant, producing the X7, a larger SUV with three rows of seats similar to a Cadillac Escalade. The company will also make the X4, a sportier version of the X3 coupe and plans to build a plug-in hybrid version of its smaller X5 SUV.
BMW first started making cars in South Carolina in 1994 after months of courtship from around the U.S. And has become as much of a part of the state's modern cultural landscape as the barbecue. The company said access to interstates motorways, rail lines and the Atlantic Ocean were the state's biggest draws.
Mercedes-Benz followed with a plant in Alabama a year later, and in the past two decades, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen have all followed with plants built in rural Southern locations not far from decent-sized cities.
The foreign automakers also benefited from cheaper, non-unionized labor. Earlier this year, workers at the Volkswagen plant near Chattanooga, Tennessee, refused a vote to organize, even with management's blessing.
BMW planned a huge ceremony today, with BMW Group Chairman Norbert Reithofer joining Gov. Nikki Haley and US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker at the Greer plant.