Despite global demand in new vehicles dropping significantly in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the restrictions imposed worldwide, the BMW Group posted increased sales of its electrified cars.
According to numbers released by the company, a total of 61,652 electrified vehicles, made by BMW and MINI, were shipped to their owners in the first six months of 2020, which represented a 3.4 percent increase compared to the same time period of last year.
“Demand for our electrified vehicles outperformed the market trend in the first half of the year”, said the member of the Board of Management responsible for Customer, Brands and Sales, Pieter Nota. “Our wide range of plug-in hybrid models and the new fully-electric MINI are in high demand among our customers.”
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A big dip elsewhere
Global sales of the BMW-branded vehicles dropped by 21.7 percent in the first half of the year, to 842,153 units. MINI sold 31.1 percent less cars, to 118,862, and Rolls-Royce reported a 37.6 percent drop, with only 1,560 vehicles delivered. Demand for their motorcycles also dropped by 17.7 percent, to 76,707 examples.
“We are following the development of global demand very closely and continue to plan for various scenarios so we can respond quickly as regions around the globe recover from the coronavirus pandemic at different speeds”, added Nota. “We are seeing a positive development in China, where our second-quarter sales were once again higher than in the previous year.”
Europe was the Group’s biggest market, with 372,428 sales recorded from January to June, 32.3 percent less, including 116,255 shipped to Germany, down 29.1 percent. In Asia, they delivered 416,153 cars, an 8.1 percent drop, including 329,069 in China, down 6.0 percent, and 152,102 of their rides crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas, down 30.5 percent, out of which 120,937 made it to the U.S.A., down 29.4 percent.
