BMW X4 to be built in U.S.

BMW X4 - production to start in the US in 2013

It was tempting to make the headline ‘BMW X4 Confirmed’. But we’ve already done that twice.

As far back as October 2010 we revealed BMW would be putting the BMW X4– the baby X6 – in to production, and that was re-confirmed late last year by BMW boss Norbert Reithofer. And now we know that BMW will be producing the X4 at their Spartanburg plant in South Carolina after they announced a $900 million investment in the plant yesterday.

The Spartanburg plant has been building BMW’s X cars since 1994, and with the new $900 million being ploughed in to the local economy it takes BMW’s investment in South Carolina up to $6 billion in the last 20 years, an investment that has yielded the production of 2 million SUVs.

But the new BMW X4 could well become one of BMW’s biggest sellers. The surprise hit that was the X6 showed that buyers are willing to pay a premium for a stylish ‘Lifestyle’ SUV, and Land Rover’s big success with the Range Rover Evoque has shown that bandwagon continuing to roll, especially at the more ‘Compact’ end.

We had expected to see the BMW X4 turn up by now – perhaps at Detroit this week – as a concept, but it now seems likely the X4 will arrive at Geneva in the Spring before heading for production in 2013.