BMW X7 flagship SUV to be built in the US

BMW has officially announced it will be building the new X7 flagship SUV at the company’s South Carolina plant in the US. The top dog in the X family is expected to arrive in 2018 and will be positioned above the X5.

Aimed squarely at the Mercedes-Benz GL, the BMW X7 will be a large SUV with three row of seats and designed specifically for the American market. Around 50,000 units will be made annually.

The $1 billion BMW planned to inject into the South Carolina plant will see the factory employing 800 additional workers, bringing total employment at the plant to 8,800 people. It will also be BMW’s largest manufacturing base by 2016, with an output targeted to be at least 450,000 vehicles per year.

BMW Chief Executive Norbert Reithofer had said 5 years ago that plans to build an X7 had been dropped because the company thought large sport utility vehicles were at odds with the carmaker’s aim to cut its overall emission footprint.

“The U.S. will stay a market with great potential for us. This is why we are evaluating the possibility of increasing capacity in the U.S.,” Reithofer said Wednesday at the company’s annual results press conference in Munich.