In what seems to be an unfortunate twist of events, a train carrying no less than 120 BMW X models from the company’s South Carolina plant to the Port of Charleston derailed, damaging all of them. According to the company, the cars included various versions of the X3, X4, X5 and X6 assortment.
The Spartanburg plant in South Carolina is on its way to becoming BMW’s largest worldwide, with an annual output of about 450,000 units. All of them are SUVs, from the X3 upwards, including the upcoming BMW X7. About 70 percent of its production is exported and the distance from the plant to the Port of Charleston is usually covered by train, without incidents.
This time though, things didn’t go as planned. Two Norfolk Southern locomotives and a total of 12 rail cars, each carrying 10 cars, derailed in Blair, South Carolina, leading to a lot of prospective owners having to wait a little longer to take delivery of their cars. Officials from the train company said investigations will be made to see what caused the derailment and also mentioned that the tracks were damaged in the process. That means other shipments will probably be delayed as well.
On the other hand, when asked about the incident, BMW released a short statement saying “BMW personnel are traveling to the scene and will assess the damage to these 120 BMWs. We will continue to work with Norfolk Southern in this situation to assess the damages.” Fortunately, nobody was injured in this whole ordeal, as the two-man crew operating the train left the scene unscathed.
The article 120 BMW SUVs Damaged after Train Carrying them Derails appeared first on BMW BLOG