BMW Group posted a 7.6 percent hike in vehicle deliveries for the first seven months of 2012 to 1,036,088 units, from 962,493 units in the same period in 2011. This marks the first time the group, which includes BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce, delivered over one million vehicles for the January to July period. For the month of July 2012 alone, the BMW Group posted a 5.0 percent increase in deliveries to 135,537 units from 129,102 vehicles in the same month in 2011. The group also made its presence strongly felt in Asia by logging a 25.0 percent jump in sales to 274,058 vehicles in the first seven months of 2012, compared with 219,204 units sold in the same period in 2011. In fact, the group sold 182,048 BMW and MINI vehicles in Mainland China for a 29.6 percent gain.
The group also logged a 20.8 percent increase in sales in Asia for July 2012 to 36,128 vehicles from 29,950 units for the same month in 2011. BMW Group particularly posted strong July sales in China, where it posted a 22.5 percent increase to 23,092 units, followed by Japan with 13.8 percent growth to 3,909 units, and Korea with 27.8 percent gain to 3,164 units.
The group is expected to continue its growth in China in the second half of the year, spearheaded by its new BMW 3 Series Long Wheelbase and the BMW X1 vehicles. In contrast, BMW Group posted a slight decline in July sales in Europe at 2.4 percent to just 60,855 units. The group, however, posted a very slight drop in European sales in the first seven months of 2012, delivering 497,932 vehicles for just a 0.4 percent decline. The group is expected to fare better in the second half of 2012 as it is bound to roll out this September its new BMW 3 Series Touring, which accounts for two-thirds of BMW 3 Series registrations in Germany.
