GREER, S.C. (AP)  BMW will spend $750 million to expand its South Carolina production plant and create 500 jobs, the company said Monday.

The German automaker will add 1.2 million square feet of production space, and has already started expanding the paint shop at the plant in western South Carolina, said Frank-Peter Arndt, a BMW board member for global production.

Mr. Arndt said BMW would add a new generation of its X3 sport utility vehicles to the site, making the plant the exclusive source for the X3 and X5 sport utilities, as well as the X6 sports coupe introduced this year at the Detroit auto show.

The news comes two weeks after BMW said it planned to cut 5,000 jobs in Germany and 600 elsewhere, or 7.5 percent of its work force over two years.