BMW Manufacturing Corp. Has a strong 2000

    SPARTANBURG, S.C., Jan. 29 BMW Manufacturing Corp. ended
the year 2000 with 1,125 more associates and 83,672 vehicles built at the
upstate South Carolina factory, and 2001 already is shaping up to be another
good year.
    The 50,000th BMW X5 sports activity vehicle, which was a mahogany, six-
cylinder vehicle, rolled off the manufacturing line in mid January on its way
to a Chattanooga, Tenn. dealership.  And in its tracks are the 250,000th Z3,
which should move off line in late February or early March and the 100,000th
X5, which should be produced by end of summer.
    The addition of 1,125 associates last year brings employment at the
Spartanburg County plant to 3,898.  To keep pace with customer demand for the
X5 sports activity vehicle, another 300 workers will be added in 2001, and the
factory will work four 10-hour days, increasing production time from 80 to
110 hours over six days each week.
    BMW's vehicle production will increase about 25 percent in 2001 with the
building of more than 100,000 vehicles.  Through the year 2000, the factory
has built 313,790 vehicles since production began September 1994.
    Calendar year 2000 has been a banner sales year for BMW throughout the
world.  BMW of North America, the BMW subsidiary responsible for sales in the
U.S., surpassed all previous sales figures, selling 189,423 vehicles, an
increase of 22 percent over 154,709 vehicles sold in 1999.  In 1991, the last
year before BMW announced plans to build a factory in America, BMW sold
53,000 units in the United States.
    And the BMW Group sold more than 822,000 units worldwide in 2000, a
9.4 percent increase.
    In addition to building vehicles and hiring more associates in 2000, BMW
Manufacturing Corp.:

    * Broke ground on a189,000 square-foot addition to the Body Shop, which
      will prepare the factory for future BMW models.  The investment totals
      $300 million, which includes construction and tooling.  The architect is
      O'Neal Engineering and the contractor is Suitt Construction.
      Construction of the building is scheduled to be finished by spring. Then
      the lengthier installation of tooling and equipment begins.

    * Completed a $37 million, 90,000-square-foot automated
      warehouse/sequencing center.

    * Completed a $16 million, 18,000 square-foot Information Technology
      Center to house communications and data service systems.

    * Completed a $9 million additional stacker system to store painted bodies
      before they move into Assembly.

    * Completed a $4 million 1,000-space covered parking area to house
      finished vehicles for distribution to dealerships throughout the world.

    * Completed a $3 million 1,000-space associate parking area with
      pedestrian bridge located behind the factory, which will improve traffic
      flow around the plant and allow associates to park nearer their work
      areas.  The other two employee parking lots are located in front of the
      factory.

    * Completed development and installation of a $500,000 packing system for
      new vehicles.  The recyclable plastic cover prevents damage to the
      vehicle's paint job during transit and makes the preservation with wax
      unnecessary.

    * Began construction of a $3 million office area in the Assembly
      department, which will increase space on the factory floor for parts.
      It is expected the offices will be operational by early summer.

    When the $300 million Body Shop expansion is completed, BMW's investment
in the South Carolina project will total more than $2 billion.
    Thirty-seven BMW suppliers are located in South Carolina within a few
hours drive of plant, creating nearly 5,000 jobs.  Twenty-seven of those 37
companies chose to place new North American operations in South Carolina to
partner with BMW.
    The Z3 roadsters and coupes, motorsport roadsters and coupes, and the X5
sports activity vehicle are built only at the South Carolina factory and
exported throughout the world.

    BMW Manufacturing Corp. is a subsidiary of BMW AG in Munich.  Its website
address is http://www.bmwusfactory.com.  In addition to the South Carolina
manufacturing facility, BMW's North American subsidiaries include sales,
marketing and financial services operations in the United States, Canada and
throughout Latin America; an information technology consulting and systems
integration firm in South Carolina; a production facility in Mexico; and a
design firm in California.