As BMW enthusiasts, we are concerned with how well BMW's model lineup meets our needs; whether it's for performance cars, luxury cars, crossovers, electrics, or any combination of those. The main concern of the BMW Group is to make a profit and grow the company so that it can keep making the cars we're interested in. A pretty good measurement of success for a carmaker is how many cars it sells, and in the past few years, 2,000,000 vehicles per year has become an expected metric for the BMW Group. So far in 2017, the company has already sold 2,000,000 units—and reached that number faster than ever before.
As of the end of October, the group had sold 2,008,849 vehicles, an increase of 3.4% over the same period last year. October sales of 197,601 were a tad bit higher than October a year ago, even though sales of the very popular BMW X3 Sports Activity Vehicle were down as customers waited for the brand-new X3 that will show up in dealerships this month.
“Our sales results for the first ten months of the year confirm the broad range and appeal of our model lineup,” commented Dr. Ian Robertson, BMW AG Board of Management member for sales and brand BMW. “Despite significant model changeovers and headwinds in some of our biggest markets, we have delivered over 2,000,000 vehicles to customers in the first ten months of the year. Vehicles as wide-ranging as the BMW X1, the BMW 5 Series, 7 Series and the BMW i3, to name just a few, have all contributed to that growth."
BMW pointed out the sales numbers for its nine electrified vehicles are up 63.7% over the same period last year. A total of 78,096 BMW i and iPerformance vehicles were delivered to customers through October, which constituted about 8% of total BMW sales in the U.S., France, the U.K., and the Netherlands, with deliveries of electrified BMWs in Scandinavia accounting for over 30% of total BMW sales. The numbers for BMW Group electrified vehicles are good and by some accounts, make BMW a world leader in such scales. However, its goal was to sell 100,000 electrified BMWs and Minis in 2017 and with only two months to go, it will be tight, if possible at all.
Unlike the U.S market, in which BMW is still experiencing a slump, BMW sales everywhere else are doing well and are up 3.6% through the first ten months of 2017.
Global BMW brand sales in the first ten months of 2017 increased by 3.6% with a total of 1,706,020 units sold worldwide. Once again, the numbers prove the economic wisdom of building X vehicles as total BMW X sales were up 11.3% with 578,336 X vehicles delivered.
Mini has picked up the pace as well, as worldwide sales of Minis reached 300,000 units for the first time ever by the end of October. The Mini Countryman was the league leader with total sales through October of 64,339 units, a 19.3% jump over last year.
BMW Motorrad continues to deliver record sales numbers. A total of 140,269 BMW motorcycles and maxi-scooters were sold in the first ten months of 2017, an increase of 10.4% over last year.—Scott Blazey
[Photos courtesy of BMW AG.]
