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A look back on BMW, South Carolina and Southern manufacturing

It has been 20 years since BMW broke ground on its Spartanburg, SC manufacturing facility, and while the automaker doesn't have any plans to mark the moment, economists and industry analysts have taken a closer look at the facility's impact on South Carolina, the South and global manufacturing. As of November, the Spartanburg plant's 7,000 employees cranked out 25,000 vehicles per month, and BMW has poured some $6 billion into the state since the plant opened in 1993. While that figure nearly matches the state's proposed budget for next year, some say there have been drawbacks.
To begin with, South Carolina provided BMW with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of public money and tax breaks with little public oversight, setting a precedent that would repeat itself with other corporations. The Detroit News reports that a Pew Center evaluation found 26 states didn't have a sufficient system for evaluating tax incentive performance. But BMW opened the door for a Southern manufacturing renaissance, with automakers from Mercedes-Benz to Hyundai and Volkswagen opening plants in the Deep South.
While states have raced to offer ever sweeter tax and cash incentives for big manufacturers, officials say BMW is proof the system can pay dividends. You can read the full piece here.

Mercedes G63 vs. BMW i8: Our silly drag race between the past and future

You see, we were just trying to conserve resources. We had Milan Dragway rented for a test of the AMS Alpha 10 Audi R8, and there was some extra track time, so we brought these two along. That's called saving money. Or something. Aside from being German, the G63 and i8 couldn't really be much more different – one is a prehistoric military vehicle with a nutty twin-turbo V8, the other a vision of the near future of efficient sports cars. So what did we do? We lined them up against each other, editor-in-chief Michael Austin in the i8 and me in the G-Wagen. Though we had a good idea of the likely winner – note which car the boss is driving – the results were still surprising. Watch for yourself above. Green Humor BMW Mercedes-Benz Coupe SUV Hybrid Luxury Performance Videos Original Video drag race milan dragway

Pininfarina Battista hypercar's output specified at 1,873 horsepower

Even in a galaxy far, far away, the Pininfarina Battista would stand out. After a delay of about three years, the official specifications of the all-electric hypercar have been revealed: Full power is rated at 1,873 horsepower, outputting 1,697 foot-pounds of torque. Sixty-two miles per hour arrives in 1.86 seconds, with 124 mph coming in 4.75 seconds. 217 mph is the estimated top speed. (The Rimac Nevera recently hit 258.) The 120kWh battery pack should enable a range of about 280 miles from a single charge. A pair of electric motors are mounted to each axle, each motor powering a specific wheel and giving the Battista full torque vectoring capability. Pricing — and this is one of those cars that, if one has to ask, just move on — is about $2.2 million, which places it in the territory of the Bugatti Chiron. For those customers considering an upsell, a limited “anniversario” edition will comprise five of the expected 150-unit build run. It differs from the standard version by some cosmetic alterations, which lifts the price by some $70,000-plus. 0r you could buy a BMW M3 as a chase car. The two-seater Battista is named for Battista “Pinin” Farina, who founded Carrozzeria Pininfarina in 1930. A lot of its battery, carbon-fiber chassis and motor components come from Rimac, the nascent Croatian electric supercar maker that recently paired with Porsche to take over Bugatti.  Many more details about the carÂ’s development, several photos and our driving impressions can be found in this Autoblog post from August.   Auto News By the Numbers Green BMW Bugatti Green Automakers Green Driving Coupe Performance Supercars Pininfarina Battista