Judging by negative comments posted on the Internet about BMW’s controversial design choices, you’d think sales are declining. However, numbers tell a different story. The German luxury brand had record-breaking sales last year, and 2024 is off to an even better start. Through March 31, shipments to customers rose by 2.5%. In the first three months of the year, BMW delivered 530,933 cars to customers worldwide. It sold 12,976 more vehicles than in January-March 2023.

The first part of the year wasn’t as kind to MINI since the Oxford-based marque suffered a 9.4% decline. The British brand delivered 62,075 units. The drop is partially explained by the model switchover since the lineup is all-new for 2024.  The other UK-based company part of the BMW Group, Rolls-Royce, posted lower sales results as well. Deliveries of ultra-luxury vehicles went down by 7% to 1,525 units. The electric Spectre accounted for 38% of all RR shipments.

As a whole, the BMW Group was up in Europe by 5.4% to 228,003 cars. Meanwhile, deliveries in the United States grew by 1.2% to 91,292 cars. However, it posted a decline of 2.9% in Asian markets, including in China where demand dropped by 3.8% to 187,692 units. In other regions of the world, sales increased by 6.5%.

Through March 31, the BMW Group built 673,227 cars across its three car brands, or 0.7% less than in the first three months of 2023. Sales and production numbers for ALPINA aren’t listed but are likely to be added eventually. The pre-existing deal between BMW and the Buchloe-based firm will expire on December 31, 2025. ALPINA has been a member of the Group since early 2022.

The electric onslaught continues since EVs rose by 27.9% across BMW, MINI, and Rolls-Royce. Shipments of cars without a combustion engine increased to 82,689 units. Pure electric vehicles represented 13.9% of all BMW Group deliveries in the first three months of the year. In Q1 2023, EVs had an 11% share in total deliveries. Between January and March 2024, the BMW Group sold 122,582 electrified cars (EVs+PHEVs), or 10.9% more than in the same interval of last year.

Source: BMW