The BMW Group sold 64,647 fully electric vehicles from the BMW and Mini brands in the first three months of the year. This represents a growth rate of 83 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2022. If plug-in hybrids are included, sales grew by 23 per cent.
Across all drive types, the BMW Group delivered 588,138 BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce brand vehicles worldwide in the first quarter of this year. The BEV share thus corresponds to eleven per cent. Sales of electric cars including plug-in hybrids amounted to 110,486 units in the first quarter, or just under 19 per cent of total sales. In 2022 as a whole, the BMW Group famously achieved a BEV share of around nine per cent. At the beginning of January, the group set itself the target of achieving a 15 per cent share of all-electric vehicles in total sales for 2023. In the coming quarters, therefore, the group will have to improve significantly.
The BMW brand accounted for 55,979 BEV deliveries in the first quarter, an increase of 112 per cent compared to the same period last year. In Q1/2022, BMW already recorded a doubling of growth in all-electric vehicles compared to Q1/2021. The brand was thus able to maintain its growth course despite the reduced environmental bonus. According to the manufacturer, “the BMW iX, BMW i7, BMW i4 and BMW iX3 in particular are enjoying high demand”. In addition, the newly launched BMW iX1 is very popular with customers due to its brand-typical driving pleasure and sporty elegance.
The Mini brand sold 68,541 units (-9.2%) across all drive types in the first three months of the year. Demand for the all-electric Mini Cooper SE remains high, the manufacturer says, without giving concrete figures on sales of the electric Mini. For the rest of the year, Mini expects “positive impulses from the sales launch of the all-electric Mini Cooper SE convertible.
BMW generally does not give the distribution among the individual model series, nor does it give the distribution of BEV sales among the individual sales regions. The latter is only available for the entire BMW Group across all drive types. How the electric BMWs have sold in China or the USA, for example, is therefore not known at this point.
“Our strong product lineup continues to inspire our customers worldwide. Our fully-electric vehicles, in particular, are benefiting from high demand around the globe. We were therefore able to maintain the dynamic pace of our electromobility ramp-up in the first quarter,” commented Pieter Nota, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG responsible for Customers, Brands and Sales. He added that the BMW Group is on track to achieve modest growth in 2023 as a whole. “The main growth drivers in 2023 will be fully-electric vehicles and models from the high-end premium segment – like the new BMW i7*, the new BMW 7 Series, the BMW XM* and the updated BMW X7,” Nota added.
BMW has high hopes for the introduction of the new i5 this year. With this model, the manufacturer says it has at least one all-electric model in every major segment. The product portfolio will be complemented by the all-electric BMW iX2 and the first all-electric 5 Series Touring at the end of the year.
On this basis, the carmaker expects a steep growth path in the coming years: “By 2024, at least one in five of the company’s new vehicles should have a fully-electric drive train; by 2025, one in four newly delivered vehicles should be a BEV and, by 2026, about one in three. The BMW Group believes that, as the NEUE KLASSE ramps up with its compelling product substance, it has the potential to further accelerate the market penetration of e-mobility.”
In 2022 as a whole, the BMW Group sold a total of 215,755 fully electric vehicles from the BMW and Mini brands, more than twice as many as in 2021. The Group was also able to hand over the 500,000th fully electric vehicle to customers’ hands at the end of 2022. In 2021 as a whole, BMW still stood at 103,855 battery-electric cars. The year 2022 thus corresponded to a growth of 107.7 per cent.
Keyword: BMW Group sells 11 per cent BEV vehicles in Q1 of 2023