BMW Group June sales up 2.1% as sales of 5 series fall

[FRANKFURT] BMW Group, which owns the Mini, Rolls-Royce and BMW brands, said its June car sales rose 2.1 per cent worldwide, despite a 16.5 per cent sales dip in Germany and a decline in sales in the new BMW 5 series.

BMW said June sales of the 5 series were down 7.9 per cent on the year at 27,595 cars, because of a lack of availability for a new long-wheelbase variant in China that is still in the launch phase and has not yet been rolled out to all showrooms.

Compared with June last year, sales of the 5 series were down 64 per cent in China, which makes up about half of all global demand for the 5 series.

Sales in Germany fell. Furthermore, BMW said a delay of certain components from Bosch had led to production shortages. A Takata airbag issue had also caused a steering wheel variant that is popular in Germany, to be unavailable, BMW said.

For the BMW Group, June passenger car sales were up 2.1 per cent on the year to 232,620 cars, of which 192,873 were sales of BMW branded cars, the company said.

REUTERS