New BMW X5 Leads BMW’s Home Of X Milestone In South Carolina

The new BMW X5 took top billing at BMW’s Home of X celebration in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where the fifth-generation SUV made its world premiere on home soil. The plant has assembled every X5 since 1999, so there was no more fitting stage for the covers to come off the latest model.

The gathering also marked the completion of a $1.7 billion investment across BMW’s South Carolina operations, funding the expansion of Plant Spartanburg and the construction of the neighbouring Plant Woodruff. Newly appointed board chairman Milan Nedeljkovi? said the move demonstrates the firm’s confidence in the United States and cements the state’s place at the centre of its global operations.

That outlay lays the groundwork for building electric cars locally. BMW confirmed the iX5 will be the first fully electric BMW assembled in America, with production starting before the end of 2026, and the brand plans to build at least six electric models in the country by 2030, fed by batteries from Woodruff. Spartanburg is already BMW’s largest plant anywhere and its global hub for X models, having turned out more than 7.3 million cars since 1994.

The X5 itself remains the headline act. It becomes the first BMW offered with five drivetrains, spanning petrol, diesel, plug-in hybrid, battery-electric and, before long, hydrogen fuel cell. Spartanburg will be the first site in BMW’s network able to build a single model with all five on one assembly line, a neat showcase of the marque’s technology-open thinking. More than three million X5s have found homes since the badge arrived in 1999.

Behind the scenes, both plants lean heavily on BMW’s iFACTORY blueprint. Digital twins map out every process before parts arrive, AI-driven cameras police quality along the line, and humanoid robots from Figure AI now shoulder some of the most repetitive jobs. It all points to a Carolina operation built to carry the X family well into its electric future.