The BMW brand continues to enjoy strong customer demand around the world, and North America is no exception. Sales of BMW vehicles expanded 4.7% during July, thanks t0 23,015 deliveries over last year’s total of 21,982. Year-to-date, the BMW brand is up 2.3%, with a comfortable margin between the 179,455 vehicles sold so far this year, and the 175,368 that had been delivered by the same time last year. Contrastingly, MINI sales remain in a veritable nosedive, with 2,287 unit deliveries translating to a 34.2% decrease from last July’s total of 4,296. The MINI brand is also down 24.2% for the year, with unit sales decreasing from 26,932 to 20,410.
As we are all keenly aware by now, BMW’s model portfolio of X SAVs and SACs are leading the way in terms of sales. While the BMW passenger car segment, which includes all of the conventional series, plus the i3, i8, Z4, X1, and X2, saw sales continue to slide in 21.5% July, from 14,265 last year to 11,191. This contributes to a year-to-date decline of 15.4%, with just 95,658 unit deliveries having occurred in 2019 compared to 113,017 during the same period of 2018. BMW light trucks, on the other hand, are strong sellers, with the segment that includes all of the models from X3 through X7 carding growth of 53.2% during 2019, from 7,717 units to 11,824. Looking at the grander scheme, the light truck segment is on pace to overtake the passenger car segment this year, with growth of 34.4% increasing deliveries from 62,351 to 83,797 year-to-date. Overall, BMW of North America sales decreased 1.7% during July, from 26,278 to 25,842, with MINI putting a damper on things. BMW NA is also down 1.2% for the first seven months of 2019, with deliveries having shrunk from 202,300 to 199,865.
The X3 is, unquestionably, the hottest-selling BMW available right now, with 5,690 of the SAV delivered in June, growth of 32.8%. The X3 has been carding strong numbers like this for several months now, once full availability of the third-generation became a reality, according to BMW. The model is sustaining strong growth, and is up 30.2% for 2019 with 37,817 finding new homes, compared with 29,035 during the same period of 2018. The X5, now available in its fourth generation, is really starting to pick up steam as well. 3,804 units were delivered in July, an increase of 43.3% over last year. The X7 is proving to have very strong potential, with over 10,000 of the largest BMW model ever having been delivered since it went on sale earlier this year.
As far as conventional BMW models are concerned, the 3 Series is the strongest, with sales expanding 6.5% during July, from 3,185 to 3,392. Four and 5 Series deliveries decreased in July, while 7 Series sales expanded slightly. 1,601 Z4 roadsters have been sold this year, while the figure for the 8 series is 1,750—not bad for niche models that don’t appeal to the masses.
BMW Group Electrified deliveries dove last month, and were off of last July’s total by some 49%. Again, BMW attributes the staggering decline this year to important, bread and butter models like the electrified versions of the X3, X5, and 3 Series not being available in their latest generations yet.
BMW pre-owned sales totaled 20,010 in July, 2% less than last year. BMW Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) sales dropped 8.3%, to 9,434. The story is much the same for MINI, which saw CPO sales decrease 16.5% in July to 1,114, and total pre-owned sales collapse by 11.9%, to 2,585 vehicles.—Alex Tock
[Photos courtesy BMW AG.]