“In the full year, depending on what happens after the general election, any possible increase in VAT and the fleet and business market reactions to any changes, we expect to sell around 100,000 BMW units. Last year we sold 98,683 vehicles,” said Green quoted by just-auto.com.
“Already this year we have received three times the level of new model orders over the same period last year and this means we have reached half of our 2010 sales target and much of this demand has been built around the fleet industry,” added Green.
“We expect the fleet and business sector to grow their share of our sales to 65%,” explained Green, who added that many fleet customers held off changing their vehicles during the recession and extended their lease periods. However, right now that doesn’t make economic sense for them so they are changing their fleets this year.
Green said the 320d Efficient Dynamics saloon with 163bhp, 380Nm, 109g/km CO2, 68.9mpg performance is rated zero for the UK's vehicle excise duty under the new first year rate (aka 'showroom tax') and will cost just GBP20 a year in road tax for the second year onwards. The new economy model is priced at GBP27,245, the same as the standard 320d SE.
The UK market will take 60% of BMW’s total production of the new version (3,000 units a year), a third of which are already sold.
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