By Michael Ellis
DETROIT, Sept 25 (Reuters) - German automaker BMW AG will announce on Thursday plans to invest $400 million to expand its Spartanburg, South Carolina plant, where it builds the X5 sport utility vehicle and will make the new Z4 roadster, BMW officials familiar with the plan said.
The announcement coincides with the official unveiling of the Z4 at the Paris auto show. The racy Z4, which features BMW's new controversial styling, replaces the classic-looking Z3 roadster, which premiered in the 1995 James Bond movie "Goldeneye".
BMW will expand capacity at the plant to more than 155,000 vehicles annually from about 125,000 previously, the officials told Reuters. The South Carolina plant expansion is part of BMW's efforts to boost BMW's production to 1.3 million vehicles annually by 2005 from 900,000 currently.
BMW, Germany's third largest automaker, is hoping the slightly larger Z4 will attract a broader spectrum of buyers with the aim of selling about 40,000 of the sports cars annually worldwide. The Z4 will go on sale in the United States in the fall, and be available in Europe in the spring.
But the Z4, which goes into production next month, has stirred some controversy in the automotive world, because of its "flame surface" styling, which mixes hard edges with soft curves. The back-end of the Z4 also resembles somewhat the rear of the 7 Series flagship sedan, the most disputed styling trait in the new luxury car.
"These are obviously very emotionally-charged vehicles for people," one automotive analyst said. "Whenever they change something, it always gets the purists up in arms."
BMW also wants to expand production of its popular X5 sport utility vehicle. BMW Chairman Helmut Panke told reporters in Detroit in August that X5 buyers in Europe are waiting a couple of months for the X5, and the lineup in Asia is six to eight months.
Automotive analysts said that BMW could add a third model to Spartanburg in the future, perhaps the forthcoming X3 compact SUV, which BMW has said will initially be built by Magna Steyr at its plant in Graz, Austria.
Some analysts have said a larger SUV that BMW has talked about for the future, called the X7, could also be built in Spartanburg in 2007 or 2008. But other analysts have said that BMW may decide against building the X7.