Construction has begun on BMW Manufacturing’s $700 million battery assembly plant in Woodruff, which is part of a $1.7 billion investment the company is making in South Carolina to eventually produce six fully electric vehicles.
State and local officials joined company leaders for a groundbreaking ceremony June 27 at the 315-acre site on S.C. Highway 101 in Woodruff. The 1 million-square-foot plant in southern Spartanburg County will create 300 new jobs and assemble sixth generation lithium ion batteries as part of BMW’s eDrive system.
Cells for the high-voltage batteries will be produced by Envision AESC at an $810 million, 1.5 million-square-foot plant the company is building in Florence. BMW Manufacturing will be the plant’s first customer in a multi-year deal to supply the Woodruff assembly plant.
Plant Woodruff and a new technical training center at Plant Spartanburg are central parts of BMW’s initiative to produce electric X models for the worldwide vehicle market at the company’s South Carolina facilities.
With more than 11,000 employees and about $12.4 billion invested in the Palmetto State since 1992, BMW Manufacturing has had a profound impact on the local and state economies.
Plant Woodruff is expected to continue that trend and is a major contributing factor to an economic boom in Woodruff where as many as 5,000 new homes are under construction or planned within the next few years.
The new plant will incorporate a number of features dedicated to environmental sustainability, including:
- Eliminating the use of fossil fuels and using only 100% green electricity.
- Designing the building to be solar ready, meaning it will support the future installation of a rooftop solar energy system.
- Using collected rainwater as part of a strategy to significantly reduce the plant’s water consumption.
