The BMW Group Malaysia’s plant in Kulim, Kedah is now the largest exporter of premium vehicles in the Southeast Asian ASEAN trade bloc, with over 6,000 Malaysia-assembled BMW and MINI models shipped out of Malaysia since 2018.

The plant itself has been in operation since 2008. Last year, it reached a new milestone of producing its 100,000th vehicle. Export operations to serve Thailand and the Philippines began in 2018, the year BMW opened an adjascent engine assembly plant.

Located within the Sime Darby Motors- and Bermaz-owned Inokom automotive manufacturing campus in Kulim, BMW Group Malaysia’s assembly operations include both vehicle and engine assembly, with the latter carried out at the Sime Darby Auto Engineering engine plant located adjacent to the main vehicle assembly building.

BMW says its Kulim plant is ranked one of the best in Asia, which is also why it is tasked to supply right-hand drive cars to Thailand and left-hand drive cars to the Philippines.

At the company’s 2023 Business Briefing earlier today, which also saw the company launching the new 2023 BMW 3 Series, Managing Director Hans de Visser said the Kulim plant has exported more than 6,000 vehicles (cumulative), and is Malaysia’s biggest exporter of premium vehicles.

“To date, we have delivered over 6,000 units to neighbouring countries such as Thailand and the Philippines, making us the largest exporter of premium vehicles in the region, with strong assembly capabilities here in Malaysia. We are the No.1 exporting premium manufacturer here in Malaysia,” said de Visser.

BMW Group Malaysia’s Kulim plant now exports the following models:

Thailand: BMW 3 Series, 6 Series GT, X4, MINI Countryman

Philippines: BMW 3 Series, 5 Series, X3, MINI Countryman

The engine plant makes the B38 3-cylinder petrol engine, B48 4-cylinder petrol (including plug-in hybrid), and B47 4-cylinder diesel.