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A look back on BMW, South Carolina and Southern manufacturing

It has been 20 years since BMW broke ground on its Spartanburg, SC manufacturing facility, and while the automaker doesn't have any plans to mark the moment, economists and industry analysts have taken a closer look at the facility's impact on South Carolina, the South and global manufacturing. As of November, the Spartanburg plant's 7,000 employees cranked out 25,000 vehicles per month, and BMW has poured some $6 billion into the state since the plant opened in 1993. While that figure nearly matches the state's proposed budget for next year, some say there have been drawbacks.
To begin with, South Carolina provided BMW with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of public money and tax breaks with little public oversight, setting a precedent that would repeat itself with other corporations. The Detroit News reports that a Pew Center evaluation found 26 states didn't have a sufficient system for evaluating tax incentive performance. But BMW opened the door for a Southern manufacturing renaissance, with automakers from Mercedes-Benz to Hyundai and Volkswagen opening plants in the Deep South.
While states have raced to offer ever sweeter tax and cash incentives for big manufacturers, officials say BMW is proof the system can pay dividends. You can read the full piece here.

2015 BMW i8 offers you a fast ride to the future for $135,700* [w/video]

BMW's long-form teasing and rollout of its incredibly cool i8 has put us in a unique position to report from its world debut here in Frankfurt. Typically, an auto show debut marks just the start of the information dump about a new vehicle. The i8, however, is a car that we've already driven and reviewed, so perhaps the biggest news from the show floor is the official price of the thing, as well as getting to see it live and in person, of course.
Arriving in US showrooms in the spring of 2014, the i8 performance plug-in hybrid will carry a price tag of $135,700 (*not including $925 for destination and handling charges). That kind of cash puts the i8 near the very top of the BMW range (slotting just under the top-trim 7-Series models), and will buy a massive amount of new technology.
The four-seat i8 has the look of a true supercar, and its new-tech drivetrain will offer up the performance of a stirring sports car, at least. A TwinPower Turbo, three-cylinder, 1.5-liter engine will make 231 horsepower and 236 pound-feet of torque that's gets sent to the rear wheels, while a 96-kilowatt electric motor doles out 131 hp and 184 lb-ft of maximum torque to the fronts. Total system output of 362 hp and 420 lb-ft allows the i8 to sprint to 62 miles per hour in 4.4 seconds with all-wheels-driven handling, and it still returns an astonishing 94 miles per gallon US.

Hyundai, BMW in plant talks with Mexican officials

BMW and Hyundai may be joining the rush for the border that has already seen Nissan, Honda and Mazda begin factory construction in Mexico, while Ford and General Motors have both made significant investments in their Mexican facilities. BMW's interest in Mexico has been apparent for some time, and while we'd heard grumblings about Hyundai's move into Latin America some time ago, the last we heard about it was in 2009.
This new move, reported by Bloomberg, doesn't get specific on which models will be produced south of the Rio Grande, and as neither automakers' spokespeople responded to the business site's request for statements, all we really have to go on are the statements of Mexico's Economy Minister, Ildefonso Guajardo: "I cannot talk for them, but I think that starting 2014 we'll have new announcements. At least for one." Which manufacturer that will be remains anyone's guess, although judging by all the recent scuttlebutt that's been going around, the smart money seems to be on BMW. We'll stay with this one.