Following on the heels of the news that it will be expanding its Spartanburg production facility, BMW has announced that it will be further reducing its European workforce. The German automaker plans to ramp up its U.S. production by 50 percent by 2012, which will in turn take its toll of BMW’s European workforce.
BMW plans to cut 5,600 more jobs this year — on top of the already announced 2,500 cuts — which is about 7.5 percent of BMW’s total workforce.
BMW blames the shift in production on the weak value of the dollar, which makes U.S. production more cost effective.
Within the next four years, BMW plans to produce 240,000 vehicles annually in the U.S., up from its current level of 155,000 units.
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03/10, 1:44 PM
posted by:
DaBun07
good move on bmw’s part more jobs for our ****ty economy, the only bad part is im pretty sure there is gonna be a decline in quality
03/10, 2:01 PM
posted by:
SwerveEarly
Well that didnt take long. Hopefully as soon as they dump billions into this, the dollar will shoot back up. Comes around goes around.
03/10, 2:14 PM
posted by:
Need more oil for GM
“Within the next four years, BMW plans to produce 240,000 vehicles annually in the U.S., up from its current level of 155,000 units.”
The ones who will benefit the most will be the tow truck companies.
03/10, 2:37 PM
posted by:
RicardoHead
Adios, krautenheimers!
03/10, 2:44 PM
posted by:
SoLoveLA
Lets all hate on the producer of great drivers cars after all this is a blog cars.
03/10, 2:49 PM
posted by:
driver54
Let’s all welcome back GM SALES a.k.a. Need more oil for GM.
03/10, 3:20 PM
posted by:
SS4LIFE
Hmm well any help to the U.S Economy is help in itself. Ok someone tell my why BMW adding more jobs in the U.S and increasing production in the U.S is going to lead to a decline in quality? They still are BMWs designed in Germany, using mostly made German parts are they not???
03/10, 3:52 PM
posted by:
sunshine1810
Bad move. I will NEVER buy any car BMW makes outside Germany.
03/10, 4:16 PM
posted by:
johnnycanuck
Well, I suppose if they’re going to sell them here why not build them here. And I’m quite sure in typical BMW fashion any savings in production costs will be passed on to the consumer. Fat f*cking chance.
03/10, 5:17 PM
posted by:
zoomzoomr
It’s sure encouraging to hear that the US is now the third-world-country-of-choice for foreign makers to produce vehicles at lower cost! They could have chosen China or India, but settled for the US instead.
03/10, 6:15 PM
posted by:
Heart64
Bavarian cream-Making-Works
03/10, 6:17 PM
posted by:
deutschetouring1337
Expect your new BMW to have a revised sticker that says
Country of Origin: Germany
Origin of Parts:
Germany 10%
Turkey 15%
Hungry 40%
Czech Republic 30%
Engine Assembled: Hungry / Czech Republic
There is a new article out in the Economist stating how much globalization has helped Europe even with all the protectionism going on.
03/10, 7:02 PM
posted by:
deutschetouring1337
The keyword is “european” which means German workforce. Gotta read between the lines with the news these days.
03/10, 7:06 PM
posted by:
Jazz
Good for America, Bad for BMW. MOre jobs in America is more jobs in America. Bad for BMW as it will probably get into union and political scraps in Germany now. Also some discerning BMW buyers will turn their noses up on these new BMWs like Mercedes Benz with the ‘Bama ML. Nevertheless BMW won’t lose much sleep (or money). Perceived workmanship might suffer but with the current lease offers covering all maintance and warranty items you’re pretty much guaranteed nothing out of the pocket for the first few years.
Still not a fan of BMW’s for the reason listed by F3INT))AP3X and that they are not as great a driving machine as the crap mags say.
03/10, 9:10 PM
posted by:
zoomzoomr
“Maybe its time the rest of the world stepped up and started buying sh_t too” – Fairlight Racing
No, the rest of the world seems to uniformly resist buying American cars.
03/10, 9:14 PM
posted by:
autonut
BMW assembly plant is in the South, there are few unions there.
03/10, 11:11 PM
posted by:
bigp
only because of the weak dollar .smart bitches
03/10, 11:21 PM
posted by:
Jazz
Autonut – I stand corrected, But I bet they’ll still lose some cred in the ‘fatherland’
03/11, 11:05 AM
posted by:
moto-racer13
sign of the times, American is becoming a cheap labor nation. American built BMW’s and Merc’s are already ranked very low in quality, this is a dumb move for BMW to build more cars in the US. However BMW will waste alot of money paying its US workers health care because American has no health care system like Europe, Canada, Japan, Australia, pretty much every other industrialised nation. But German auto workers are highly paid and get 6 weeks paid vacation so it is expensive to build cars in Germany, but your getting quality and top notch engineering. Something your won’t get from a hick in Alabama.