Despite challenges from the second COVID-19 wave, BMW India has sold 70 per cent more luxury vehicles at over 9,600 units at the group level across its three brands during first nine months of the year, helping it cross the one lakh units milestone since its entry 14 years ago.
Following the rest of the industry, the company has also announced a marginal price increase across its models and brands to offset the input cost from this month.
At the group level, the overall volume stood at 9,602 units during the first nine months of 2021, up 70 per cent in 2020, across the BMW, the Mini and the Motorard nameplates, Vikram Pawah, BMW Group India president and chief executive, told PTI in an interaction on Tuesday.
On a quarterly basis, during the third quarter ended September 2021, the BMW and the Mini brands grossed up 90.5 per cent more volume selling at 2,636 units over 2020, and the numbers for BMW Motorrad are 1,588 units, which is more than 13 times the same quarter in 2020, Pawah said.
BMW alone sold 2,442 units in the third quarter, up 93.3 per cent, Mini sold 194 units, 60.3 per cent more than the comparable period last year, and the Motorrad sold 1,588 units, more than 13 times over the same period last year.
Thus, overall, the BMW and the Mini models grossed up 45.4 per cent more units in the first nine months of the year at 6,027 units (5,580 BMWs, up 44 per cent; and 447 Minis, up 65.5 per cent). And, the Motorrad volume rose 210.6 per cent to 3,575 units, taking the group volume to 9,602 units, which is a growth of over 70 per cent of 2020, Pawah said.
“Against this, in the whole of 2020, we had sold just about 8,500 units across our three brands,” he added.
On the other hand, the market leader Mercedes-Benz had sold 4,857 units in the first half, up 65 per cent over 2,948 units. It is yet to announce the third quarter numbers.
Pawah said the recovery from the pandemic has been much faster than anticipated, with so much demand that by the end of the year, “we’ll have ask for three-six months waiting for many of our brands”.
Sounding optimistic, Pawah said the company will be able to almost match the 2019 numbers by the end of the year.
“I am very confident of a strong double-digit growth in October through December, helping us reach very close to the 2019 numbers. Overall, our numbers will be better than the 2019 volume but that is because of the Motorrad.
“But I fear the same can be spoken about the car volumes by December. Overall, we will close the year with strong numbers, say a strong double-digits growth for the group,” Pawah said.
On reaching the 1-lakh-units sales in 14 years, he claimed that there is no other luxury brand in the country that has sold as many as 1 lakh units in just 14 years.
Having launched 24 of the planned 28 models this year so far, Pawah said the company will continue with the model offensive across the three brands. “We’ll have three more launches this month as we prepares the market for the festival season with a price campaign that seeks to make buying a BMW/Mini very simple.”
