BMW sells more cars in 2011
Troubled year? Pah! BMW sold record numbers last year
By Shahzad Sheikh
Arno Husselmann,General Manager, Abu Dhabi Motors; Dr.Joerg Breuer, Managing Director, BMW Group Middle East; Stathis I. Stathis, Managing Director, Albatha Automotive Group, running AGMC
I went along to a BMW group press conference this morning, and because there was a lovely free lunch afterwards, I feel compelled to share the measure of their success with you. Good thing they’re quite impressive numbers.
Here are the headlines. In 2011 BMW group sold 14.2% more cars than the previous year. That was 1.67million cars across the globe – a new record for the company.
The German marque scored well in the Middle East too, with sales up 9% overall compared to 2010 – that’s 18,657 cars in 14 markets. And yes, that was also the best ever result.
From the BMW range alone, this region represents the third biggest worldwide market for the 7-series (the biggest seller here, followed by 5-series, X5 and X6).
About 4286 people also agreed with me that the 5-series is a really rather handsome car and bought one – up 30%.
And those thinking the UAE was in a dire way last year, think again. It was actually the biggest market for BMW – by some margin. It accounted for 47% of BMW Group Middle East’s sales.
Both Abu Dhabi and Dubai experienced 23% growth with Abu Dhabi Motors selling slightly more cars (4436). Saudi was next with 3072 units sold, Kuwait with 2380 and Qatar 1265. Biggest growth was in Yemen – only 112 sold, but up 37%.
They even sold 47 cars in Pakistan, where the owners were promptly car-jacked, I should imagine.
And of course it’s not just BMWs they sell, the Mini’s done jolly well for itself too.
Global sales up 21.7% to 285,060 and a much bigger jump here of 77% with 1108 sold. Dubai was the biggest market up 164% and Abu Dhabi was up 63%.
Guess that 4WD Countryman certainly helped boost the brand. I want a rally version!
