BMW Group Australia has concluded the first quarter of 2021 on a high note, posting 11.7% sales growth for the BMW and MINI brands combined.
Registrations of new BMW vehicles saw an impressive 57.3% upswing for March alone, with eight models seeing a notable gain. Four BMW X models were also up for the month, led by the award-winning X5, which was up 56%.
To the end of Q1, BMW X models accounted for 55.8% of total BMW registrations. The BMW 2 Series Gran Coupé, which launched last year, recorded a 155% increase, while the 4 Series was up an impressive 206% off the back of the new generation coupé’s launch in Q4, 2020. Both the passenger and SUV segments were up for BMW by 15% and 8% respectively.
The MINI brand achieved 17% growth versus the first quarter of 2020 and recorded a whopping 85.6% increase on last March’s result. The MINI Hatch, Clubman and Countryman all saw double digit percentage increases in registrations compared with Q1 2020, while the Convertible was up 9%.
The fully electric MINI Electric Hatch, which launched last year, continues to find new homes this year with more than 60 orders taken and 15 vehicles delivered to the end of March. When it was first made available to order exclusively online last year, the majority of the first allocation of MINI Electric Hatch vehicles was reserved in just one week.
The prosperous first quarter for BMW Group in Australia played a key role in the company’s record global sales for the quarter. BMW Group delivered a total of 636,606 BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce vehicles to customers, marking a 33.5% increase and an all-time high for the first quarter. The result included sales of 70,207 PHEV and BEV vehicles, which represented 129.8% growth and further underlined the importance of electromobility for the company.
BMW Group plans to have approximately 12 fully-electric models on the road and at least one fully-electric model in about 90% of its current market segments by 2023. In coming years BMW will launch fully electric versions of the 5 Series, 7 Series, X1 and the successor to the MINI Countryman.
BMW Group Australia will launch two all-new fully electric models in 2021, the iX3, arriving mid-year and iX, arriving in Q4.