BMW leads premium car market with 7.6% sales growth in July

Munich: The BMW Group continued on its successful course as the world’s leading premium car company once again in July with an increase of 7.6% in sales. A total of 129,094 (prev. yr. 119,992) BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brand automobiles were sold worldwide last month. Over the past seven months the number of deliveries climbed 17.9% to 962,468 vehicles (prev. yr. 816,014).

Ian Robertson, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, responsible for Sales and Marketing: “We have just reported the most successful July sales ever and we are well on our way to achieving our recently announced target of over 1.6 million vehicles in 2011, the best ever sales result for the BMW Group. We are clearly benefitting from a very attractive product line-up which is finding success with customers right across the globe.”

The BMW Group made substantial gains in many markets in July. In the US, the company delivered 11.7% (26,120 / prev. yr. 23,390) more vehicles. With 21,409 (+12.3% / prev. yr. 19,064) sales last month, BMW was once again the best-selling premium automobile brand in the US market.

The company again reported strong growth in China, where 36.1% more vehicles (18.858 / prev. yr. 13.852) were sold last month.

In Germany, a total of 23,212 new BMW and MINI vehicles were registered in July, which was on the same level as the previous year (prev. yr. 23,397 / -0.8%). The slower pace could be attributed to line-up changes, including the changeover from the first generation BMW 1 Series to the second generation.

The BMW Group continued to achieve impressive double-digit growth in July in the dynamic young markets of Brazil (1,121 vehicles / +22.1%) Russia (2,560 vehicles / +53.9%), India (840 vehicles / +57%) and Korea (2,475 vehicles / +94.9%).

BMW: Sales of BMW brand automobiles climbed to 108,721 units (prev. yr. 101,499 / +7.1%) in the month under review. The brand has delivered a total of 798,590 (prev. yr. 687,249) units to customers worldwide since the start of the year – an increase of 16.2%.

The highest growth in sales was once again driven by the BMW X3, with 9,762 units sold in July (2010: 3,329 units; +193.2%), which brings the total number of BMW X3 vehicles sold in the first seven months to 63,284 (prev. yr. 28,165 / +124.7%).

The BMW X1 also continues to report strong growth with a total of 10,786 vehicles delivered to customers in July (+22.6%). Demand for the new BMW 5 Series remains high. With total sales of 24,196 vehicles in July (+51.7%) the BMW 5 Series is the clear leader in its segment.

MINI continued on its path to a record year with solid growth across all continents in July. 20,153 vehicles were delivered last month, an increase of 10.5% over the 18,242 cars sold in July 2010. Year-to-date, MINI sales are up 27.1% on volume with 162,066 compared to 127,544 in the first seven months of 2010.

Motorcycles: After the best sales result ever for BMW Motorrad in the first half-year, the growth continued in July. A total of 11,054 (prev. yr. 10,022 / +10.3%) vehicles were delivered to customers last month.

In the first seven months of 2011, BMW Motorrad sold 71,634 (prev. yr. 67,037) vehicles. This represents a growth of 6.9% compared to the same period in 2010. Husqvarna Motorcycles delivered 4,394 Motorcycles year-to-date (prev. yr. 5,590 / -21.4%), including 864 in July (prev. yr. 931 / -7.2%).

The iconic brand BMW is represented in Sri Lanka by Prestige Automobile (Pvt) Ltd.