What's the news?
Pre-production versions of BMW's super-luxury big SUV, the all-new X7, are beginning to roll off the company's production line at the Spartanburg facility in the US, ahead of the showroom version making its debut towards the end of 2018.
All the pre-prod X7s emerging from the South Carolinian plant are in camo-wrap, to ensure the final production look is kept something of a secret, and these large SUVs are built on the same line as the X5 and X6 models that are already on sale.
These development X7s will now go on to do lots of extreme-weather testing in Death Valley and Scandinavia, with the vehicles already homologated and registered for such experimental use.
The X7 will be the fifth SUV model series to emerge from the Spartanburg plant, as all of the X3, X4, X5 and X6 are currently built there. In 2016, the US factory put together more than 411,000 units of the existing four SUVs combined, making it the largest plant in the BMW Group worldwide. Around 70 per cent of the vehicles built there are exported to 140 countries around the world, while there has been investment of $8 billion (€6.64bn) in the facility during its operating years. The maximum annual production capacity is 450,000 vehicles.
Anything else?
Knudt Flor, head of the BMW Group Spartanburg plant, said: "We are proud to produce the BMW X7 here in Spartanburg, the home of our X models. This is a very special vehicle and our employees are looking forward to yet a further member of the X family. Together with the BMW X7, a total of five BMW X models will be exported from Spartanburg to all four corners of the globe."