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BMW has announced a $750 million investment in its Spartanburg plant in the US to increase capacity by 50 per cent from 160,000 units a year to 240,000.

The investment up to 2012 will increase the area of the plant by 60 per cent to 370,000 square metres, and will bring 500 new jobs.

BMW intends to build the X3, X5 and X6 models at Spartanburg for world markets and more than three-quarters of the new build will be an assembly area for the next generation X3. The paint shop will also be expanded by 80 per cent or 28,000 square metres.

Frank-Peter Arndt, BMW board member, said: "By bundling our know-how for our BMW X-series models in Spartanburg we will be able to work more efficiently there in the future. It is a part of our strategy to be a global operation that we should raise our production capacity in our largest market."