Record sales for BMW in January help boost local supply chain
VEHICLE manufacturer BMW has continued 2016 in the same vein as it finished last year, toasting record sales.
2015 was the most successful sales year ever for the group and January saw it beat its best ever total for that month.
A total of 152,879 BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce vehicles were delivered to customers globally, an increase of 7.5% on the same month last year.
Ian Robertson, BMW board member for sales and marketing, said: “We are pleased to see the sustainable levels of growth we achieved in 2015 continuing into this year.
“Despite many markets showing continuing volatility, we remain optimistic that this positive trend will continue through 2016, our company’s centenary year.”
BMW branded vehicles matched the group’s performance for January, with sales increasing by 7.5% to a total of 133,883.
The BMW 1 Series saw good growth, increasing sales by 22.9% (12,324), while the new BMW X1 increased by 60.4% compared with the same month last year (14,308). Combined sales of the BMW 2 Series Active and Gran Tourers in January reached 8,249 units.
The BMW X family remains increasingly popular in all vehicle classes: sales of the X3 increased by 16.6% (10,777) while sales of the X6 increased 24.2% (3,587).
The brand’s flagship, the new BMW 7 Series, achieved a 26.3% increase in sales compared with the same month last year (3,392).
Following record sales in 2015, MINI achieved its best-ever January with a total of 18,867 vehicles delivered to customers worldwide, an increase of 8.6%. This is good news for the company’s Hams Hall plant, which supplies engines to the cars and for the network of firms supplying it and the wider MINI production operation.
The MINI five-door was one of the brand’s main growth drivers, with sales for that model increasing 49.2% (5,783). The new MINI Clubman’s strong start continued into January with a total of 2,300 units delivered worldwide.
The group’s European markets held firm, with sales up almost 11% across all territories to 61,737. Several markets achieved double-digit growth including Italy (+16.2% / 5,907), France (+18.8% / 5,273) and Spain (+25.5% / 4,417). The region’s two biggest markets – Germany and the UK – also grew sales, with 20,009 new vehicles registered in Germany (+2.4%) and in the UK sales grew by 2.3% (9,453).
The sales result in the Americas was affected by the storms which disrupted large parts of the USA in January. A total of 26,667 BMW and MINIs were delivered in the region in the first year of the month (-2.9%). Although sales in the USA were 4% down on the same month last year, deliveries in Canada rose 9.8% (2,280) and sales in Mexico were up 13.0% (1,430).
Deliveries of BMW and MINI vehicles in Asia increased by 9.8% (59,522) compared with January last year. In Mainland China, deliveries rose 8.4% (43,441), sales in South Korea increased 13.4% (4,587) and deliveries in Japan climbed 19.3% (3,833).
