BMW Group opened its Plant Woodruff high-voltage battery assembly facility in South Carolina on November 13, 2026, marking the start of series production of sixth-generation (Gen6) batteries for the new BMW iX5, which the company says is its first fully electric model built in the United States.
Woodruff supplies Gen6 batteries to BMW Plant Spartanburg, which is 15 miles away and is where the iX5 will be assembled. BMW says Woodruff is the fourth site in its production network to begin series production of Gen6 batteries, following Debrecen, Hungary, Irlbach-Straßkirchen, Germany, and Shenyang, China. A fifth site in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, is scheduled to follow in 2027.
The Woodruff plant assembles supplied cylindrical cells into batteries using a cell-to-pack design and does not produce the cells itself. BMW says the plant has more than 300 employees and 250 robots, with AI-supported processes monitoring production. The company says the Gen6 cells for the iX5 reduce CO2e emissions by around 28 percent per watt-hour compared with the Gen5 cell used in the BMW iX.
BMW held the groundbreaking for the plant in June 2023 and began construction that September, with the first test and pre-series batteries coming off the assembly line in summer 2025.
Robert Engelhorn, president and CEO of BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC in Spartanburg, said, “High-voltage batteries assembled at this state-of-the-art facility will power the next generation of fully electric BMW X models from Plant Spartanburg.” BMW says it will be assembling at least six fully electric models at Spartanburg by 2030.