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News of August 14, 2002

BMW Group starts the second half year well

Munich - The BMW Group has started the second half of 2002 with a sales increase of 21.1% in July. The number of BMW and MINI cars delivered to customers rose by 16,000 to 91,800 in comparison with the same month last year. Up to the end of July, the number of deliveries rose by 18.6% to 635,600 units. The BMW brand was able to increase in July by 2.9% to 77,800 cars delivered (prev. year: 75,600). Up to the end of July, sales of the BMW brand rose to 559,100 (prev. yr.: 535,400), which is an increase of 4.4%.

The MINI brand is proving to be a real hit one year after its market launch in the United Kingdom in July last year. Over 100,000 MINI One, MINI Cooper and MINI Cooper S cars have now been sold worldwide, including 76,500 in the first seven months of this year. In the USA, where the MINI brand has only been available as the MINI Cooper and MINI Cooper S since the end of March this year, 9,600 MINIs, comprising 6,400 MINI Coopers and 3,200 MINI Cooper S, have already been delivered.

Sales of the new 7 Series continue to develop above the expected levels. With a total of 4,600 automobiles delivered, the 7 Series again took over the worldwide market leadership in its segment in July. Up to the end of July, the number of vehicles delivered to customers rose to 30,400 units. This is all the more satisfactory given the fact that only two eight-cylinder petrol engine variants are available at the moment. The BMW Group is expecting sales of the new 7 Series to be boosted still further when a diesel version becomes available later this year, followed by the six and twelve cylinder engine variants next year.

The BMW Group once again recorded better progress in July than the overall market as a whole and in almost all the important markets. The front runners for growth in the major European markets in July were the United Kingdom, with an increase in sales of 71% to 7,800 automobiles (prev. yr.: 4,500), followed by Italy (plus 46% to 6,100 automobiles) and Spain (plus 23% to 4,700 automobiles). In Germany, sales in July increased by 11% to 23,900 units in a continuing difficult market environment.

In the USA, growth in July was 15%, reaching 22,000 BMW and MINI brand automobiles delivered to customers. Canada actually increased by almost 50% to 1,500 units.

In the Asian markets, Japan was able to record a leap in sales of 60% to almost 4,000 units in July, China (incl. Hong Kong and Taiwan) grew by 25% over the same month last year to 1,300 automobiles sold. The front runner in Asia is South Korea with a growth in sales in July of 77% to 480 automobiles.

Because of the continuing high demand for BMW Group automobiles, work will continue throughout the summer in all plants worldwide. A total of 22 additional Saturday shifts have been agreed for the whole year in the Munich and Regensburg plants.

(August 9, 2002)

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