November was a good month to be a BMW or Mini dealer anywhere in the world except the United States. Global BMW Group sales were up 6.2 percent as 209,743 units were delivered worldwide. As of the end of November, total BMW Group sales for the year stood at 2,152,393 units, a 5.8 percent increase over the first eleven months of 2015.
“We have achieved yet another month of solid growth across all the BMW Group’s premium brands,” said Dr. Ian Robertson, Member of the BMW AG Board of Management for sales and marketing BMW. “We have grown our sales every month since November 2011—five years of continuously increasing sales, in line with the expansion of our model range. The addition of our electrified vehicles has made a significant contribution to that growth and that segment is growing month for month,” he added.
On the BMW side, 1,824,490 of our favorite cars were sold worldwide, up 5.6 percent from the same time last year. BMW's family of Sports Activity Vehicles still seems to be carrying the load. November sales of the BMW X1 were up 74.4 percent in November, totaling 22,595 vehicles. More than 15,100 X5s were delivered, which was an increase of 17.6 percent. Overall, X vehicle sales through the end of November came to 579,718, a jump of 22.4 percent.
BMW i and iPerformance models also sold well globally. In the first eleven months of the 2016, 54,857 electrified BMW vehicles went to customers worldwide. More than one in three BMWs sold in the Netherlands had electric motors and in Norway, the BMW i3 was the top-selling car across all manufacturers and models.
“It’s clear that those markets which actively support electro-mobility are seeing the fastest growth when it comes to alternative-drive vehicles,” said Dr. Robertson. “The addition of the BMW 5 Series and Mini Countryman plug-in hybrid versions in the first half of 2017 is set to increase sales of BMW Group electrified models significantly next year—we have set ourselves the ambitious target of 100,000 units."
Mini sales increased by 7.9% in November with a total of 31,593 delivered to customers worldwide. That brought the year-to-date total to 324,417 Minis, an increase of 7.4% over the previous year.
BMW and Mini sales in Europe, Asia, Canada, and Mexico were all up. Only the U.S. market continued to experience a downturn, a situation experienced by most other premium carmakers.
Motorcycles were not left out in the global sales record setting. This year is the best ever for BMW Motorrad. So far, 136,393 BMW motorcycles and maxi-scooters have been delivered, up 5.4 percent over last year.
All this good news is tempered with a slight disappointment for those who keep track of such things. Mercedes-Benz is on track to take the top global premium sales slot from BMW for the first time since 2005.—Scott Blazey
[Photo courtesy of BMW AG.]
