German brand BMW becomes the United States’ biggest car exporter.

The United States - BMW was briefly in the spotlight at the end of last year when the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) decided that their Chevrolet car fleet had been used enough and replaced it with BMW cars. The brand is now back in the spotlight, as its manufacturing operations in the United States top the list of the United States’ largest automotive exporters by value for 2025. This is based on data from the United States Department of Commerce, cited by Carscoops, on Sunday. Most of the cars come from the BMW plant at the Spartanburg manufacturing facility in South Carolina: 3 million vehicles with a total value of US$113 billion ( Rp1.9 quadrillion ) produced between 2014 and 2025. Last year alone, around 200,000 vehicles were shipped from the U.S. abroad with export value reaching US$9 billion ( Rp152.45 trillion ). Last year, the plant focused on producing SUVs and crossovers produced nearly 50,000 units below its production capacity of 450,000 units. Workers there assembled 412,799 X models in 2025, the third-highest production total in the plant’s more than 30-year history, and the seventh time their production has surpassed 400,000 units. BMW emphasises the importance of ‘Free Trade’. Amid tariffs and a trade war-dominated news cycle, BMW management appears to implicitly reiterate that their commitment to manufacturing in the U.S. would not be possible without free trade. ‘Free trade and open markets enable growth and prosperity. Our factories, and most importantly, the strong supplier network across regions, benefit from this,’ said Milan Nedeljkovic, a member of the BMW AG board responsible for production. The facility began operating in 1994, with two paint shops, one stamping facility, two separate assembly halls, and three body shops. For the BMW line of ‘Sports Activity Vehicles’, the Spartanburg facility is a global hub and an important part of the brand’s global production network. Consequently, its contribution is significant in meeting rising demand for BMW Sports Activity Vehicles and coupes in the United States. Nevertheless, there are several other facilities in the U.S. that also handle production, marketing, distribution, and sale of BMW vehicles. BMW Group’s operations in the U.S. are spread across 30 sites in 12 states, including Designworks, BMW Manufacturing, BMW Group Financial Services, BMW i Ventures, and the BMW Technology Office USA.