Blue Skies Ahead

BMW Group sells over a million automobiles


January 03, 2004

With a clear rise in sales in November, the BMW Group is well on target for the 2003 financial year. In the first eleven months of the current year, over a million BMW and MINI brand automobiles have already been sold (1,006,590 / prev.yr.: 976,330). Compared with the same period last year, this corresponds to an increase of 3.1%. This growth in sales was driven by dynamic developments in November, when 97,220 (prev.yr.: 85,160) automobiles were sold worldwide. This is an increase of 14.2% compared with the same month last year.

The BMW brand almost reached the previous year's level in a per-month comparison (841,640 / prev.yr.: 842,610 / -0.1%). On a monthly basis, growth has accelerated further, rising by 17.2% to 83,850 automobiles (prev.yr.: 71,510).

The main driving force behind these positive sales developments remains the new BMW 5 Series. In November alone, 15,430 new BMW 5 Series saloons were delivered to customers worldwide. Altogether, since the market launch in July this year, the number of units has already reached 52,350. In comparison with the previous year, the BMW 7 Series has also recorded a clear increase, with over 50,000 units having been sold already up to the end of November (51,850 / prev.yr.: 46,160 / +12.3%). This means that the BMW 7 Series has passed the 100,000 unit mark just two years after the market launch (105,790).

The MINI brand has already reached its yearly sales target of 165,000 by the end of November, at 164,940 (prev.yr.: 133,720 / +23.3%). This means that by the end of the year, a record level of over 170,000 MINI sold will have been reached. In a monthly comparison, sales of the MINI brand fell slightly by 2.0% to 13,380 automobiles (prev.yr.: 13,640).

In a comparison between countries, the UK remains by far the most important sales market for the MINI. In the first eleven months of the year, 39,990 automobiles were delivered to customers here (prev.yr.: 33,640 / +18.9%). The USA comes in second place, with 32,010 units (prev.yr.: 21,310 / +50.2%), followed by Germany, with 24,740 (prev.yr.: 22,100 / +11.9%) and Italy with 19,590 (prev.yr.: 16,240 / +20.6%) vehicles delivered.

As far as the model mix is concerned, the move towards the higher-value MINI models continues: half of customers (49.8% / 82,160) went for the MINI Cooper. The top model Cooper S accounted for about a quarter of sales (24.6% / 40,650), as did the basic MINI One (25.6% / 42,130).

The market situation for the Motorcycles Segment remains difficult. Against this background, sales here in November remained relatively stable, recording a slight decline of 1.3% to 84,400 units (prev.yr.: 85,550). On a monthly basis, sales were 5,020 (prev.yr.: 5,050 / -0.6%).