BMW’s failure to win government approval to expand a BMW Brilliance Automotive factory in China is fueling concern that global automakers could find it increasingly difficult to win regulatory approval on projects in the country.

China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection said it sent back an application, citing inadequate wastewater analysis and the plan’s failure to meet government anti-pollution targets.

“The ease of expansion is probably not going to be as easy as in the past,” said Bill Russo, Beijing-based president of automotive consultant Synergistics.

Russo, who’s been in China for the past decade, said he can’t recall the government ever issuing a statement knocking back an automaker’s expansion plans for an existing project.

BMW spokesman Alexander Bilgeri said the ministry asked for additional documents and that the government decision on the project wasn’t final. Such events are routine, Bilgeri said.

Turning down approvals to expand an existing project is “unusual” said Russo, a former Chrysler executive.

In the statement, dated July 26 and available on the ministry’s Web site, the government said it didn’t approve BMW Brilliance Automotive’s plans for the third phase of a factory in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang. The first phase of the plant has yet to pass an inspection, it said.

The Economic Information Daily, one of the official Xinhua News Agency’s newspapers, yesterday reported industry officials are increasingly calling for China to start an investigation into imported car prices.

Profit from selling imported luxury cars in China was 30 percent higher than the global average, the newspaper said, citing China Automobile Dealers Association Executive Vice President and Secretary General Shen Jianjun

Getting lower-level bureaus to sign off on manufacturing projects are among the first regulatory steps for foreign companies before they receive central government approval.