While U.S. sales have been lukewarm this year, the BMW Group has been selling vehicles at a pretty good clip in the rest of the world. Last month, in its best June ever, the company sold a record 232,620 vehicles, a 2.1 percent increase over June of last year. Of that total, 192,873 BMW-branded vehicles went out the door. For the first six months of 2017, BMW moved 1,038,030 units, which was a marque record for the first half of any year and 5.2 percent ahead of least year.
In fact, it was also a first-half record for the BMW Group as a whole. A total of 1,220,819 BMWs, Minis, and Rolls-Royces were delivered between January and June, which was a 5 percent jump from the same period in 2016.
“June rounds off our best ever first half-year and the BMW Group remains the world’s leading premium car company,” said Dr. Ian Robertson, BMW AG Board of Management member for for sales and brand BMW. “We’ve already sold more than a million BMW vehicles this year, which is a new first-half-year record. June also saw our successful electrification strategy expand still further to include the Mini brand, meaning customers can now choose from nine electrified BMW Group vehicles. With sales of these models up by 80 percent compared with the first half of last year, we’re looking forward to celebrating delivery of the 200,000th electrified BMW Group vehicle later this year."
Leading the advance for BMW were the BMW X1 Sports Activity Vehicles with a 45.2 percent increase in the first half or 2017—136,748 units—while BMW X5 sales were up 10.6 percent to 89,958 worldwide.
The BMW 1 Series, which we don't get in the U.S. market, posted an improvement of 6.5 percent to 91,802 cars, and the BMW 7 Series continued to impress with sales of 32,290 units, a 26.9 percent jump.
Sales of electrified BMW Group vehicles were way up compared to last year. With the arrival of the Mini Cooper S E Countryman ALL4 in dealerships in June, nine different BMW Group electrified vehicles are available for sale throughout the world, although a couple are not available here. With the lineup now including the all-electric BMW i3 and i3 REx and the plug-in hybrid BMW i8, X5 40e, 330e, 530e, 740e, 225xe Active Tourer, and now Mini Cooper S E Countryman ALL4, BMW stands a chance of meeting its aggressive goal of selling 100,000 electrified vehicles worldwide this year. As of the end of June, the total stood at 42,573 BMW i, BMW iPerformance, and Mini Electric vehicles, which was a 79.8 percent increase over the same period last year. The BMW Group will have to pick up the pace in the second half of 2017, but at this point, it's still possible.
Mini achieved global sales of 39,443 cars in June, which was a record for the BMW Group's premium compact division, and the 181,214 Minis the company sold in the first half of 2017 was also a record.
"Mini continues to achieve sustainable growth in sales around the world,” said Peter Schwarzenbauer, member of the BMW AG Board of Management responsible for Mini, Rolls-Royce, and BMW Motorrad. “Sales of the new Mini Countryman are particularly pleasing and I’m delighted that with the launch in June of the Mini Cooper S E Countryman ALL4, electric mobility is now available on a large scale from the Mini brand. Customer interest in this car has been extremely high and I’m confident we will see continued growth across the brand in the second half of the year."
Not to be outdone, BMW Motorrad set a record for June sales with a total of 17,260 motorcycles and maxi-scooters delivered to customers, an increase of 15.1percent over June of last year. First-half sales were also a record as BMW Motorrad sold 88,389 bikes, a 9.5 percent bump from 2016.
BMW still trails Mercedes-Benz in total global sales this year, but BMW CEO Harald Krüger did say the company was emphasizing sales profit over sales numbers.—Scott Blazey
[Photos courtesy of BMW AG.]
