In a mixed set of results, BMW Group has announced that its global sales for 2022 dropped by 4.8 per cent after being plagued by component shortages and logistical nightmares, while sales of its growing battery-electric lineup more than doubled.
All up, BMW Group – which includes the M division, MINI, Rolls-Royce – delivered 2,399,636 vehicles for the year in 2022. Looking within the group, BMW brand itself saw its deliveries drop by 5.1 per cent to 2,100,692 units (outselling Mercedes-Benz; 2,043,900, and Audi; 1,614,231), while MINI dropped by 3 per cent to 292,923 vehicles. Rolls-Royce, as reported earlier, posted 6021 sales, up 8.0 per cent.
The rest of the group posted solid growth figures, with BMW M reporting growth of 8.4 per cent to a total of 177,257 units (an all-time record), BMW Group Electrified (PHEV and EV) jumped 32.1 per cent to 433,795 deliveries and, most notably, its fully electric vehicles jumped 107.7 per cent to 215,755 units.
The drop in deliveries for the year came in spite of a strong fourth-quarter sales period that saw deliveries increase 10.6 per cent, though this wasn’t quite enough to buck the wider supply-chain-impacted drop in deliveries that hit BMW particularly hard in the first six months of 2022.
Looking forward, BMW is hoping that its battery-electric lineup will account for a 15 per cent share of its overall sales in 2023, which would require around half a million deliveries judging by BMW’s most recent results. Vehicles like the iX1, iX, i4, iX3 and the upcoming i5 will play a key role in BMW being able to double its share of electric vehicles sold for the year. BMW board of management for customer and sales, Pieter Nota, said:
“We will maintain our course for profitable growth in 2023. The clear focus will be on continuing to ramp up electromobility. The next milestone for 2023 is for 15% of our total sales to come from fully-electric vehicles. With the launch of the BMW i5 later this year, we are taking another important step on the road to electrifying our model lineup.”
In Australia BMW sales topped out at 22,696 units across 2022. That was down 8.8 per cent. Its most popular model here was the X3 (4546 units, up 7.2 per cent), followed by the X5 (3111 units, down 2.0 per cent), and the 3 Series (2818, down 29.2 per cent).
