Everybody loves having bragging rights of being the top dog in whatever field they’re in, and automakers are no exception. Locally, annual sales performance numbers are the benchmark by which things are defined, and in the premium segment that particular tussle has always involved two brands, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
From 2015 to 2019, Mercedes-Benz Malaysia (MBM) ruled the roost, and its yearly sales performance reviews were not shy to trumpet that fact. However, things changed from the start of last year, when MBM stopped reporting its figures, and in its recent review of the past year there was no mention of how many cars it sold in 2020. The question thus has been, was it still on top in 2020?
As it turns out, the answer to that has come from its competitor, with BMW Group Malaysia’s announcement of its 2020 full-year sales performance highlighting that it had secured the “number one position in the automotive premium segment” last year.
The company delivered a total of 11,016 vehicles from across its BMW, MINI and BMW Motorrad brands. This is only a slight dip of 551 units (or 4.76% less) from 2019, when it managed a combined total of 11,567 units, quite the feat given that there was a pandemic about.
Of these, the BMW-specific tally of 8,903 units is the figure to note, because while it was a drop from the 9,300 units accomplished in 2019, the numbers were nonetheless good enough to place it ahead of Mercedes. The latter had delivered 10,020 cars in 2019, and so it’s ascertained that it sold far less than that last year, certainly less than what BMW managed.
The company introduced 25 new model variants across all three brands last year, four of which were electrified models. From a sales perspective, models from the G20 3 Series portfolio led the way for the BMW brand. Over 2,500 units of the 3er were delivered, of which more than 1,400 units were of the 320i Sport.
The G30 5 Series followed close behind with over 1,600 units delivered, and of these, over 900 units were of the 530e M Sport plug-in hybrid. Elsewhere, the brand sold over 3,200 vehicles from its X range of SAVs, with the F48 X1 LCI models (the sDrive 18i and sDrive20i M Sport) accounting for more than 1,000 units out of that total.
As for MINI, the brand chalked up 987 deliveries last year – sales were led by the Countryman models, with over 47% of total deliveries contributed by the Cooper S Countryman. Meanwhile, BMW Motorrad had a storming 2020, with 1,126 deliveries recorded, surpassing its 2019 performance. As it was the year before, the Adventure segment was its key performer, with over 670 bikes making their way to new owners last year.
Highlights for the company included another year in which electrification continued to feature strongly. While not quite at the levels of 2019, when it sold more than 3,100 electrified BMW and MINI vehicles, the over 2,200 units it did in 2020 kept it as the leading e-mobility provider in the country.
The company also revealed that BMW Financial Services Malaysia financed over 42% of BMW vehicles, 45% of MINI vehicles and 60% of BMW Motorrad motorcycles that were sold last year. It added that the digitalisation of customer touchpoints via its BMW Engage online financing platform also saw one out of three financing applications being funded digitally towards the end of the year.
It wasn’t all about sales in a year severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The year also saw the company engaging in several community outreach programmes, supporting several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) including Refuge for the Refugees, Tenaganita, Empire Project and Malaysia Muda in delivering food and basic essential aid to over 80,000 beneficiaries during the movement control order (MCO) periods.
The company also established its #BMWSupportsLocal initiative to support a multitude of small local businesses, which continues until today.
The post BMW Group Malaysia delivered 8,903 BMW vehicles in 2020, brand regains top spot in the premium segment appeared first on Paul Tan's Automotive News.
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