BMW Group achieves record first half-year results

BMW sales in the month of June 2017 totalled 232,620 units, representing a 2.1% increase year-on-year. Sales of the Group’s three premium brands, BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce increased 5% in the six months of the year, representing a total of 1,220,819 vehicles delivered worldwide.

The BMW brand is reported to have achieved its best-ever first half-year, topping the million mark for the first time ever in the period. Global BMW sales totalled 1,038,030 units, +5.2% over the corresponding period in 2016. In June, the brand’s sales totalled 192,873 units, +2% year-on-year. Sales of the BMW X1 increased 45.2% (136,748) between January and June 2017, while deliveries of the BMW X5 increased 10.6% (89,958). BMW 1 Series sales grew 6.5% to 91,802 in the same period, and deliveries of the flagship BMW 7 Series were up +26.9% (32,290).

Europe remains the BMW Group’s most significant sales territory and, despite recent downturns in the region’s two largest markets Germany and the UK, overall BMW Group sales for the first half of 2017 are up 2.2%. Sales growth in Asia were mainly driven by China, where combined BMW and MINI deliveries were up 18.4% in the first half-year. The Group says it continues to be affected by the decline in the overall automotive market in the U.S., while sales in other markets in the region maintain their positive growth, with BMW Group deliveries in Mexico and Latin America achieving a further double-digit increase.

The Rolls-Royce brand delivered 1,575 units in the first half of 2017, a -6.5% decrease over the corresponding period in the prior year, which was particularly strong due to the popularity of the newly introduced Rolls-Royce Dawn. According to the luxury carmaker “this base effect, and the absence from the market of the Phantom pending the introduction of the new Phantom later this year, account for the decrease in sales year-on-year.”

In the electrical vehicles segment a total of 42,573 BMWi, BMW iPerformance and MINI Electric vehicles were delivered to customers in the first half of 2017, an 79.8% increase on the same period last year. The BMW Group says it is “well on track to achieve its target of selling 100,000 electrified vehicles in 2017”.