BMW is considering building a second manufacturing unit in North America to meet the increasing regional demand for its vehicles.
BMW’s production chief Harald Krueger said in an internal message seen by Bloomberg News the company “will decide this in the next months.”
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He added that on “the North American continent, there’s still potential”.
Company sources said BMW has been shortlisting potential locations and at least two Mexican sites are still being considered. The company may build its 3-series at the new plant. Production at Spartanburg in South Carolina, now a specialist X-series SUV plant, began about 20 years ago with the 3 series sedan.
BMW CEO, Norbert Reithofer said recently said the company would “at some point” need another plant in North America to compete with Audi and Mercedes-Benz.
BMW spokesman Mathias Schmidt told Bloomberg that “as part of our long-term growth strategy we’re frequently looking at different countries for possible locations for future production. No decisions have been made yet, though, for a new plant in North America”.
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By GlobalDataJuergen Pieper, an analyst at Bankhaus Metzler, said: “Specifically for BMW it makes sense to widen production in North America because it’s such a large market for them. It helps to produce close to where the demand is. Currency fluctuations have increasingly become a problem.”
BMW’s US sales rose 19% to 32,107 units in March, its best ever March sales in the country. It narrowed the gap with Mercedes, which topped the North American luxury-car market in 2013, Bloomberg reported. Mercedes’ deliveries were up 11% to 27,401 units in March.
BMW first-quarter deliveries have increased 12% to 72,377 units in the US, while Mercedes’s sales rose 5% to 72,614 units and Audi’s deliveries were up 3% to 35,228. In 2013, the US was BMW’s second-largest sales area, accounting for 19% of total sales.
