Greenville, SC (Greenville News) - In the wake of China's 40-percent tax on U.S. car imports, BMW will raise the suggested retail prices of South Carolina-made SUVs sold in China.
"BMW China confirmed that effective today – July 30 – the MSRP on the U.S. manufactured X5 and X6 will increase in China by 4 percent to 7 percent respectively," a BMW company spokesman said Monday.
This action sets a price increase the company had foreshadowed on July 6 when China first imposed a retaliatory 25 percent tariff on American cars, which brought the total Chinese import tax to 40 percent. The Trump administration had previously announced a 25 percent tariff on $34 billion in Chinese goods, which also went into effect July 6. Another $16 billion in U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods will soon follow.
“BMW China will not be able to completely absorb the duty increase for US imported models," the company said earlier this month. "We are currently calculating related necessary pricing increases."
The new X4, also exported to China from the U.S., will have a price increase as well, BMW spokesman Kenn Sparks said Monday, but the new model hasn’t yet gone on sale in China.
"The increase will be figured into the MSRP upon launch," Sparks said.
The X3 has its own established manufacturing base in China, and the company had long planned to shift manufacturing for that model's Chinese buyers to China.
In 2017, BMW exported 81,186 vehicles from its plant in Greer to China with an export value of $2.37 billion, according to the automaker.
It is the latest in a fight between Washington and Beijing that has ensnared the financial fortunes of both South Carolina and BMW and prompted fears among many top state leaders that jobs could ultimately be affected.