Historic all-time
high, with over 144,000 sales for the month
13.9% rise in
deliveries in the first quarter 2006
Photo: BMW
BMW
7 series
Munich - In
March 2006, the BMW Group sold more cars than ever before
in a month. Compared with the same month last year, sales
of BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce automobiles rose by 13.5% to
144,316 units (previous year: 127,118).
In the first three
months of 2006, the number of deliveries by the BMW Group rose by
13.9% to a level which is also a new record on a quarterly basis:
332,923 vehicles (previous year: 292,236). The USA and the home
market of Germany are almost equal in sales volume. In the USA,
sales for the period to the end of March rose to 72,588 units (previous
year: 65,536/+10.8%). In Germany, sales reached 72,557 (previous
year: 65,680/+10.5%). The UK has the third largest sales volume,
with 40,038 vehicles delivered (previous year: 39,660/+1.0%). In
a regional comparison, the BMW Group achieved the strongest growth
in the Chinese markets, where volume sales rose by 64.1% to 9,926
automobiles (previous year: 6,050). China stands out not only because
of this extremely high rate of growth in volume terms but also the
high quality of the product mix. In the first quarter 2006, for
example, China recorded 1,680 BMW 7 Series vehicles sold, making
it the second-largest market for the BMW Group's top model after
the USA (4,864).
In a monthly comparison,
the BMW brand increased its sales by 16.8% to 122,509 vehicles (previous
year: 104,931).
In the first quarter
2006, BMW brand sales rose by 18.3% to 283,297 vehicles sold. The
entire model range contributed to this success, especially the core
model series - the BMW 3 Series, the BMW 5 Series and the BMW 7
Series. For the 3 Series, sales for the period to the end of March
2006 grew by 54.2% to 122,691 vehicles (previous year: 79,542).
This means that the 3 Series model range is responsible for 43%
of total BMW brand sales in the first three months of 2006. It is
followed in second place by the 5 Series with 57,837 deliveries
(previous year: 54,245/+6.6%). Sales for the 7 Series reached 11,727
units (previous year: 8,025), which is an increase of 46.1%.
MINI sales continue
to be determined by the limited supply. Because of the rebuilding measures
required to expand annual capacity to around 240,000 units in the medium
term, as already communicated, production in the Oxford plant in the UK
was interrupted between the middle of December 2005 and the middle of January
2006.
The MINI product mix continues
to be of a very high quality: In the three months to the end of March, the
basic model, the MINI One, was chosen by 15,147 customers (30%), and 20,155
(41%) went for the MINI Cooper. Almost one in three buyers (14,217/29%)
chose the top-of-the-range model, the MINI Cooper S. This means that the
average selling price for a MINI has risen further to now over € 21,000.
Because of the delivery bottlenecks
caused by the interrupted production in the MINI plant, sales still fell
slightly in March 2006 by 1.7% to 21,760 automobiles (previous year: 22,133).
For the year to March 2006, 49,519 MINI were delivered to customers (previous
year: 52,698/-6.0%).
Rolls-Royce delivered
47 Phantoms to customers in March (previous year: 54/-13.0%). In the first
quarter 2006, the figure was 107 cars (previous year: 126/-15.1%).
As a result of the weather,
the delivery of many motorcycles in March 2006 had to be postponed. In addition,
the successor model to the R 1200 S and the new F 800 S will only be available
from May this year. Sales in the motorcycle segment therefore fell in March
to 9,725 units (previous year: 11,793/-17.5%). For the quarter ending March
2006, 19,051 BMW motorcycles were sold (previous year: 21,304/-10.6%).
