BMW Group achieved record sales in the first quarter of 2021

BMW Group has reported record sales for the first three months of the year, delivering a total of 636,606 vehicles.

The automotive giant, which owns BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce, says this is a 33.5 per cent increase on the same period in 2021, with increased year-on-year sales in all major regions.

The bulk of its sales came from BMW, with 560,543 vehicles delivered to customers in Q1, an increase of 36.2 per cent. This was largely driven by the firm’s X range of SUVs, while the 3 Series and 5 Series both saw sales rise by more than 40 per cent.

Meanwhile, Mini sales totalled almost 75,000, with increases in every region its models are sold in. The Countryman was the best-seller and saw sales go up 36 per cent, while electrified models accounted for 15 per cent of all Mini sales.

Luxury car firm Rolls-Royce recorded its highest ever Q1 sales, delivering 1,380 cars, a year-on-year increase of 61.8 per cent.

Pieter Nota, BMW board member responsible for customer, brands and sales, said: “We continued our growth momentum in the first quarter of this year, selling more vehicles than ever before in this period. This all-time high in sales underlines our ambitious growth targets for the year.

“Our sales performance was boosted by strong demand for our electrified vehicles, in particular. In the past three months, we doubled our global sales of electrified vehicles compared to the same period last year. This puts us on track to deliver more than 100,000 fully-electric vehicles this year, with at least a million electrified vehicles on the roads in total by the end of this year.”

The Group shifted 70,207 plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles, thanks in part to the BMW iX3 EV launching in Europe recently, as well as the BMW i3 and Mini Cooper Electric, which were already on sale.

It’s likely these sales will only increase, with the electric BMW iX and i4 going on sale later this year.