GREER, S.C. (AP) — BMW will spend $750 million to expand its South Carolina production facility and create 500 new jobs, doubling the size of its U.S. manufacturing operations, the company said Monday.

The German automaker will add 1.2 million square feet of production space, and construction of new paint shop facilities already has begun, said Frank-Peter Arndt, a BMW board member in charge of global production.

said the company will add a new generation of its X3 to the site, making the plant the exclusive source for the X3 and X5 as well as the X6 sports coupe unveiled earlier this year at the Detroit Auto Show. The X line of vehicles are four-wheel drive.

The announcement comes about two weeks after BMW said it plans to cut 5,600 jobs, or 7.5 percent of its work force over two years. It previously had cut 2,500 jobs.

A spokeswoman for the South Carolina plant, Bunny Richardson, said Monday there was no connection between the job losses elsewhere and the plant expansion in South Carolina.

The rising value of the euro against the dollar does help, but it's not the primary reason for the expansion, Richardson said.

Some analysts disagreed. Greg Gardner with Oliver Wyman, publisher of the Harbour Report on automotive manufacturing activity, has said the move was "completely driven by the plunge in the dollar."

On Monday, the euro cost $1.5336.

By building the cars in the U.S., BMW can save money on the lower dollar and on wages since its South Carolina workers make less than German workers, Gardner has said.

BMW also will begin making a diesel version of the X5 and a hybrid vehicle its plant here. Arndt noted the new diesel engines can cruise at 125 mph and still get 30 miles per gallon.

"The BMW Group is also committed to producing a uniquely BMW hybrid vehicle and we will manufacture it here at Spartanburg. It will be based on the new X6," Arndt said.

The company has long wanted to open a second manufacturing line here, Arndt said.

The expansion more than triples what BMW initially said it would invest in 1992, Gov. Mark Sanford said.

Years of expansions have grown that investment to $4.1 billion and a payroll of 5,400 people at more than $450 million.

"See, you call it a line expansion. I would call it a whole new factory," Sanford said. "What we're really talking about is another BMW plant here in South Carolina."

As the expansion is completed during the next four years, production will increase to 240,000 yearly from 155,000.

BMW said the state was spending about $15 million on site preparation and the automaker may in the future seek job development tax credits.

Sanford said there had been meetings for a couple of years about the expansion in Germany and in South Carolina.

Beyond the $750 million investment, Sanford said, "it means further anchoring South Carolina's position in the world of automotive manufacturing."