Plant Rosslyn serves as a historical vantage point for BMW’s exponential international growth as an automaker. The latest model in the Bavarian firm’s lineup to be born proudly South African is the X3. Here is a descending list of all global markets it is exported to.
As part of a presentation curated by several high-ranking BMW Group South Africa personnel were a few details of the BMW X3 in its short time being produced in South Africa. Among the speakers was Daniel Bester, General Manager for Body Production at Plant Rosslyn who went into some of the numbers of the SUV’s time at the facility. Most impressively was the statistic that 95,9% of the X3s produced in South Africa are loaded onto transport trucks and taken to port before being shipped off to all corners of the world.
DRIVEN: BMW iX3
This is courtesy of an ever-growing amount of export volume, that was ushered in by the BMW 3 Series in the mid-90s, the model itself serving as the first vehicle exported in 1994. The sizable Plant Rosslyn eventually amassed 1 191 604 units of the popular sedan over its entire production run, many of which found homes around the world after a ramped-up export agreement just before the turn of the century. With a 3-shift cycle kicking off in 2012 making Plant Rosslyn run throughout the 24-hour day, production began to soar and reached a peak of over 70 000 units annually.
In 2018 however, a massive R6 billion investment catalyzed the retooling of the facility for the BMW X3, which still flows out of the factory facility to this day. BMW recently celebrated the 300 000th unit to roll off of the production line and despite being produced locally, the majority are prepared for foreign markets, many along the line configured for left-hand drive.
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- Germany – 26,5%
- USA – 19,4%
- Italy – 7,6%
- Great Britain – 6,5%
- Spain – 6,2%
- BMW Central and Eastern Europe – 5,6%
- Japan – 4,5%
- South Africa – 4,1%
- Australia – 3,9%
- Taiwan – 2,8%
- Switzerland – 2,7%
- Belgium – 1,8%
- France – 1,7%
- Mexico – 1,7%
- Turkey – 1,2%
- Austria – 1,1%
- Abu Dhabi/Oman – 0,7%
- Nordic – 0,5%
- Middle East 3 – 0,3%
- Baltic – 0,2%
- East EU, KA, AFR – 0,2%
- Sub-Saharan – 0,2%
- Portugal – 0,1%
- Vorserie (pilot Production) – 0,1%
- New Zealand – 0,1%
- Singapore – 0.1%
- Greece – 0,1%
- Cyprus – 0,1%
- Croatia – 0,1%
- Netherlands – 0,0%
- Vorserie (pilot production) – 0,0%
- Diplomatic – 0,0%
- Middle East 2 – 0,0%
Also read: BMW 50 Years an Icon celebrations kick off in Rosslyn
