BMW has asked the Chinese government for permission to expand its annual production capacity by 80 percent, from 200,000 units to 360,000.
BMW's Chinese joint venture, BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd., has two factories in the northeast China city of Shenyang: the Tiexi plant and the Dadong plant. The partnership builds the 5 series, 3 series and X1 models.
BMW Brilliance, of Shenyang, is a 50-50 joint venture between BMW and Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd.
BMW Brilliance wants to raise the Tiexi plant's capacity to 200,000 units, up from 100,000 units, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
The ministry will assess the plant's likely impact on Shenyang's environment.
In January, BMW Brilliance asked the government to expand the capacity of the Dadong plant to 160,000 units, up from 100,000 units.
China has become BMW's largest market worldwide. For the first four months of the year, BMW sold 107,211 locally built and imported vehicles in China, up 35 percent year-on-year.
Expansion in China, the world's largest auto market, is vital to the carmaker's aim of selling 2 million cars and SUVs by 2016. Last year, the BMW Group sold 1.67 million vehicles worldwide.
