Overseas subsidiaries

South Africa

BMWs have been assembled in South Africa since 1970, when Praetor Monteerders' plant was opened in Rosslyn, near Pretoria. BMW acquired the company in 1973, which became BMW South Africa, the first wholly-owned subsidiary of BMW to be established outside Germany. Three unique models that BMW Motorsport created for the South African market were the BMW 333i, which added a 6-cylinder 3.2 litre engine to the BMW 3 Series,^[41] the BMW 325is which was powered by an Alpina derived 2.7 litre engine, and the E23 M745i, which used the engine from the BMW M1.

Unlike U.S. manufacturers, such as Ford and GM, which divested from the country in the 1980s, BMW retained full ownership of its operations in South Africa.

Following the end of apartheid in 1994, and the lowering of import tariffs, BMW South Africa ended local production of the 5-Series and 7-Series, in order to concentrate on production of the 3-Series for the export market. South African-built BMWs are now exported to right hand drive markets including Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and Hong Kong, as well as Sub-Saharan Africa. Since 1997, BMW South Africa has produced vehicles in left hand drive for export to Taiwan, the United States and Iran, as well as South America.

BMW's with a VIN number starting with "NC0" are manufactured in South Africa.

United States

BMW factory in Spartanburg

BMW Manufacturing Co has been manufacturing the X5 and, more recently, the X6 in Spartanburg, South Carolina, USA.^[42] The smaller X3 is slated to begin production in Spartanburg in 2009-2010.

BMW's with a VIN number starting with "4US" are manufactured in Spartanburg.

[edit]India

BMW established in 2006 a sales subsidiary in Gurgaon (National Capital Region) and a state-of-the-art assembly plant for BMW 3 and 5 Series started operation in early 2007 in Chennai. The construction of the plant started in January 2006 with an initial investment of more than one billion Indian Rupees. The plant started fullfledged operation in the first quarter of 2007 and produces the different variants of BMW 3 Series and BMW 5 Series.^[43]

China

In May 2004 BMW opened a factory in Shenyang, north-east China, in a joint venture with Brilliance China Automotive.^[44] The factory is expected to produce 30,000 3 and 5 Series annually. BMW also has plans for a 2nd factory in China where the 1 Series will be produced.^[45]

Canada

In October 2008, BMW Group Canada was named one of Greater Toronto's Top Employers by Mediacorp Canada Inc., which was announced by the Toronto Star newspaper.^[46]

Austria

The BMW X3 is made by Magna Steyr, a subsidiary of a Canadian company, in Graz, Austria under license from BMW.