“Despite challenging market conditions, we have seen the best ever start to a year for BMW brand sales.We have sold twice as many X Series models compared to January last year with sales from the new X3 model starting to come through and evidence that the poor weather conditions lead to increased demand particularly for the X5,” said Tim Abbott, managing director of BMW Group UK.
Despite this, BMW Group reported combined sales for its BMW and MINI brands of 10,340 vehicles, an increase of 40.6 percent from the 7,353 vehicles sold in the same month a year ago. During the month, sales of BMW brand vehicles increased by 67.2 per cent with a total of 8,726 vehicles and representing a 6.7 percent share of the UK market. Meanwhile MINI reported sales of 1,614 vehicles compared to 2,135 in January 2010.
"We have also benefited from continuing high demand from our corporate customers for the fuel efficient 320d ED and the new 5 Series. However, MINI saw a drop in sales this month due to many of our customers taking advantage of December delivery to beat the VAT increase,” Abbott added.
Last year, the group reported a 10.8 percent increase in sales for a total of 153,312 units, managing to beat the market that only increased by under two percent. MINI was the 9th best selling brand in the UK last year, with sales of 43,894 vehicles, an increase of more than 10 per cent compared to 2009.
Google News