BMW Group has released its 2021 sales figures, removing all doubts about whether the brand could call itself the largest premium brand in the automotive world. The title goes to BMW.
In early January reported Reuters that BMW would have sold more than 2.2 million cars by 2021. That 2.2 million would have been borne by the BMW brand and not by the BMW Group as a whole, which also includes Mini and Rolls-Royce. BMW now reports that it sold 2,213,895 cars last year. That is 9.1 percent more than in 2020 and therefore also more than the approximately 2,093,500 cars that competitor Mercedes-Benz managed to sell last year. Never before has BMW sold so many cars as in 2021. The previous sales record was set in 2019.
Not only BMW is doing well, Mini and Rolls-Royce also saw their sales figures increase in 2021 compared to 2020. With 302,144 units, Mini sold 3.3 percent more cars than in 2020. Rolls-Royce sold a record number of new cars with 5,586 cars (+48.7 percent). In Europe, the BMW Group sold nearly 950,000 cars in 2021, just under four percent more than a year earlier. Asia, and in particular China, is the BMW Group’s largest sales market. The group sold more than a million cars there (+8.2 percent). No fewer than 846,237 of these found an owner in China. However, the largest sales profit was achieved in the United States. With more than 366,574 units, almost 20 percent more cars were sold there.
BMW X3
The number of electric cars sold by the BMW Group increased by 133.2 percent in 2021 to almost 104,000 units. About ten percent of the X3s sold last year were an electric iX3 and of all three-door Minis sold last year, roughly one in three was an electric version (34,851 units). The aging i3 also remains popular, for the ninth year in a row more units have been sold. BMW sold 28,216 i3s, 5.4 percent more than in 2020. At the other end of the spectrum are BMW’s M models. Of these, with 163,542 pieces, more than 13 percent more copies were sold.
Of course, there are more electric cars from BMW Group in the barrel. BMW is coming this year with the electric version of the 7-series, the i7. In addition, the i5, an electric version of the new BMW 5-series, is also planned for 2023. Rolls-Royce will launch the electric Specter in the same year and Mini will in turn launch an electric Countryman in 2023. Mini and Rolls-Royce will only sell electric cars from 2030.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl