BMW will add production of its X5 mid-size luxury SUV in China to meet increasing demand globally for the vehicle, a spokesperson for the automaker said on Monday.
“We will be adding localized production of the BMW X5 in China, for the Chinese market,” the spokesperson said, without mentioning a start date of the production.
China’s production of the X5 is set to start in the second quarter in 2022 at the BMW Brilliance joint venture, according to a Reuters report.
X5 vehicles sold in China have been produced at BMW’s Spartanburg plant in South Carolina until now. Added production in China will not affect production volumes at the South Carolina plant.
The statement comes after a report earlier on Monday by Handelsblatt that BMW was preparing to start production of the X5 in China from the next year.
BMW sold slightly below 700,000 cars in China from January to September this year, showing an increase of almost 20% from last year and constituting around a third of all sales in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
The move mirrors remind of another decision by BMW in 2018 to produce 10,000 to 20,000 X5 SUVs in Thailand to supply Chinese consumers after China instated a 40 percent tariff on imports from the United States due to the trade war between the two countries.
