BMW USA Blog

BMW AG has officially announced that the next generation BMW X3 SUV will be manufactured at its plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. This will be built when its present contract of agreement is already used up in 2010 to 2011.

The move, though not entirely unexpected, is a surprising a blow for Magna International which currently assembles the X3 for BMW at its Magna Steyr factory in Graz, Austria.

First introduced in January 2004, the next generation BMW X3 will be released soon with added innovative features. In connection with this, Magna acquired its adjoining neighbor, Chrysler’s Euro star plant. The said plant was building minivans and PT Cruisers. Minivan production will be moved to Magna’s original plant once Magna owned the whole complex. At the plant in Toluca, Mexico, PT Cruisers were merged. And the space vacated by Euro star was prepared to set up Magna as the only source for the new BMW.

DaimlerChrysler, parent automaker of Mercedes-Benz, has already signed the papers to their corporate divorce while their strong rival BMW is planning to launch a takeover bid for Volvo earlier this year as revealed by Autocar. It can be noted that most analysts have expressed their concern over mergers in the auto industry saying that it is not pragmatic. But it looks like BMW just don’t want itself to be daunted by the number of failed mergers in the industry and preferred to personally experience it.

Anyway, the Bavarian automaker and producer of high quality BMW exhaust have already requested a complete breakdown of Volvo’s financial position from a European investment bank which is handling enquiries on behalf of Ford, the owner of Volvo. Reliable sources have also revealed that BMW has earlier eyed the Alfa Romeo as its takeover target.