BMW Group Starts 2002 Successfully New Records set in January

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News of February 13, 2002

BMW Group Starts 2002 Successfully New Records set in January

Hong Kong/Munich - The BMW Group has started 2002 successfully. In January, sales rose by 18,7% to 77,807 vehicles. The BMW brand showed a 6,9% increase to 70.073 automobiles (prev.year: 65,543). Sales of the MINI brand were also positive, with 7.734 vehicles sold. These figures were announced by Dr. Michael Ganal, Sales and Marketing Director of the BMW Group, at the BMW Group Asia press conference in Hong Kong.

In Asia, BMW increased sales in January by 21,3% to around 4,300 vehicles (prev.year: 3,546 units). Business in China developed particularly well, with a growth rate of 80,2% (1.600 units); Japan increased by 10,1% (1,603 units) and South Korea by +33,3% (240 units).

In the previous year, deliveries to customers increased by 5.7% to 61,576 vehicles (prev.year: 58.250). In almost every Asian market, business with BMW automobiles grew faster than the overall market. The BMW Group has subsidiaries in Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia and Philippines.

Dr. Michael Ganal: "Irrespective of current uncertainties in various Asian economies, we forecast that development will be positive in the long term. Asia will be the most important growing region in the automobile industry in the next ten years. The BMW Group's growth in Asia is set to continue in 2002."

At the beginning of this year retail of BMW and MINI brand vehicles in Germany rose by 12,9% to 19,599 units; 17,973 BMWs (+3.5%, prev.year: 17,367 units) and 1,626 MINIs were delivered to customers.

In the USA, a January record was once again achieved, with 15,923 BMW vehicles (+16.2%). The new BMW 7 Series has successfully started its sales since 19 January with delivery of 1,510 cars already at the end of the month.

BMW Group sales in Great Britain in January showed an outstanding increase: plus 52,9% to 10,277 vehicles (7,100 BMWs, +5.6% and 3,177 MINIs).

Increases were also achieved in almost all the other major markets: in Italy, sales rose by 22.6% to 5,348 vehicles (4,280 BMWs and 1,068 MINIs), in France by 17.2% to 3,169 vehicles (2,469 BMWs and 700 MINIs), South Africa by 32,0% to 2,522 BMWs; Spain recorded +25.3% to 2,260 vehicles (1,957 BMWs and 303 MINIs), Switzerland +31,6% ( 938 BMWs and 244 MINIs), Australia +22,0% to 1,025 BMWs and Austria +18,9% to 1,076 vehicles (955 BMWs and 121 MINIs).

Behind this success stands a range of products that regularly receives industry awards. This week, for example, a number of BMW Group cars have been presented with awards. In London on 5 February, the British trade journal "What Car" named the following BMWs as "Car of the Year" in their various categories: the BMW 3 and 5 Series, the BMW X5 Sports Activity Vehicle and the BMW M3. In addition, the 5 Series was presented with the first "Lifetime Achievement Award". This incredibly successful BMW series has taken first place in the "What Car" awards every year since its launch; this year was the seventh time. One day later, on 6 February, the German trade journal "auto motor und sport" announced that its readers had voted the MINI One/Cooper, the BMW 5 Series and the BMW X5 top in their respective categories for the "Best Cars of 2002".

(February 8, 2002 )

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