MUNICH, GERMANY — German luxury carmaker BMW has no plans to shift production of its cars to the United States, the firm said on Dec. 22, according to Reuters. The denial came after industry magazine "Automobilwoche" reported that BMW's upgrade of its U.S. plant would enable it to build cars there. "There is no basis for speculations about relocation of production from other plants of the BMW Group to the Spartanburg plant," the firm said in a statement. BMW said its Spartanburg site would be modernized over the next few years to increase its production flexibility. The firm currently builds the X5 offroader and the Z4 roadster cabrio in Spartanburg, S.C. The firm said the modernization had been planned for some time and was not linked to current exchange rates. German daily Die Welt reported in November that BMW was considering building its planned sports wagon at its U.S. plant in South Carolina. Building cars in the United States would help protect the company from foreign exchange fluctuations without the use of expensive financial instruments, analysts said. Many analysts were forecasting BMW's earnings to drop by hundreds of millions of euros next year, due to the continued slide in the U.S. dollar. DaimlerChrysler's luxury unit has said it would build the new R-Class in the United States, where the company currently manufactures the M-Class offroader.