BMW Group sold more vehicles in March 2011 than ever before, first-quarter sales up 21%

2011 BMW 5-Series
2011 BMW 5-Series

Not to rain on Audi’s best first quarter in its history, but BMW announced that it sold more vehicles in March than ever before in a month and also achieved a new high for the first quarter of 2011. During March, BMW Group sold a total of 165,842 BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce brand vehicles. That was up 17 percent from March of last year and also beats the previous sales high of 152,721 vehicles recorded in December 2007. BMW and Mini brands also set new monthly records.

For the first 3 months of 2011, BMW increased by more than 67,000 vehicles to a total of 382,758 units, a growth of 21.3 percent compared to the first-quarter of 2010.

“2011 got off to an excellent start for the BMW Group with new sales records,” said Ian Robertson who is responsible for Sales and Marketing. “This positive development is mainly thanks to our attractive model range and healthy auto markets in many parts of the world – in the established markets of Europe and the U.S., and in the emerging markets of South America and Asia. Sales volume of the year 2011 is expected to rise to well over 1.5 million units, a new all-time high, with the BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brands all achieving new sales volume records.”

Now let’s give Audi some credit here since BMW Group’s sales account for BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce and not just BMW as a brand. The BMW brand itself sold 134,892 vehicles in March 2011 helping boost first-quarter sales to 321,175 units. Audi sold around 312,600 cars in the first three months of 2011 so it’s not so far behind. For the BMW brand, the new 2011 5-Series was the highlight with a total of 30,954 units sold in March 2011 – double the number it sold in March 2010. Since sales commenced exactly a year ago, the company has sold more than 200,000 units of the BMW 5-Series.

2011 Mini Countryman
2011 Mini Countryman

The Countryman was the pride and joy of the Mini brand selling a total of 8,392 units in March 2011, accounting for more than a quarter of Mini retail during the month.

Rolls-Royce brand continued to grow significantly in March. A total of 261 units were delivered to customers in the period, an increase of 108.8 percent over March 2010.

– By: Omar Rana