BMW Mexico

BMW Mexico, full name: Bayerische Motoren Werke de México S.A. de C.V. also known as Lerma Motors is the independent Mexican owned subsidiary of German Bayerische Motoren Werke AG headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico. It is a private Mexican owned branch of the German-based BMW AG.

BMW de Mexico has two production facilities in Lerma, Toluca, Mexico State in one the company manufactures BMW motorcycles and in the second the company manufactures the BMW 3 series, BMW 5 series, BMW 7 series and BMW X5.

BMW de Mexico was initially set up in 1994 as a joint venture between BMW AG of Germany and a group of Mexican investors to manufacture BMW 3 series vehicles for the local Mexican market as Mexican law at the time required all vehicles sold in the country to be assembled locally. Initially only the 3 series vehicles were manufactured by the joint venture from kits using both Mexican and German components while other vehicles simply used entire kits shipped from Germany. By 1996 all models had begun to use at least 50% Mexican components as Mexican law dictated.

Currently not only do Mexican built BMW's utilize Mexican parts, but the Mexican suppliers of BMW de Mexico now supply parts for BMWs sold in the mainstream international market. In 2010, BMW AG of Germany announced plans to invest $1 billion USD into Mexican auto parts suppliers to increase the supply of Mexican built parts and increase the overall percentage of Mexican components in BMW vehicles. In 2012 BMW revealed plans to build a new plant in Mexico.

BMW de Mexico currently builds the 3 series, 5 series, 7 series and the X5. BMW de Mexico also manufactures armored high security vehicles, manufactures parts for domestic and foreign markets, maintains a large repair and service facility and a school for international BMW personnel. In 2001 the Italian government purchased 30 armored BMW sedans for the Italian national police from BMW de Mexico.