BMW News

BMW will look back fondly at November as one of its best months of the year for sales. BMW brand deliveries rose 7.1% last month, with 28,049 BMWs sold versus 26,189 in November 2016. That raises the number of new BMWs going to customers to 271,432 for 2017 to date. While the total is still 3.2% lower than the same period last year, it represents a full percentage point improvement from the total at the end of October 2017.

The G30 BMW 5 Series showed improving sales for the fifth month in a row, while the BMW X5 showed why it is BMW's bedrock Sports Utility Vehicle with 5,515 deliveries in November, a 17.5% jump over the same month last year. The X5 should be looking over its shoulder, however, as the brand new BMW X3, in only its first two weeks of availability, sold 3,087 mid-size SAVs.

Another bright spot was electrified BMW Group vehicles—BMW i, BMW iPerformance, and Mini electric vehicles—sales of which through November totaled 18,416 units. This was a significant 27.8% jump from last year while the total number of BMW Group electrified vehicles sold now accounts for 5.9% of total BMW Group sales.

“November ended in a strong way for us at BMW. This week at the LA Auto Show, we gave everyone a view of what’s to come and now the November sales result has given us the perfect lead-in to what is always the most important sales month of the year, December,” said Bernhard Kuhnt, President and CEO, BMW of North America. “The indicators for the coming months give us optimism especially as the popular new X3 is now launching across the U.S., the new 5 Series continues building momentum, and BMW Group electrified vehicles accounted for nearly 6% of sales in November.” 

Total November BMW Group sales in the U.S. of 32,087 BMW and Minis represented a 4.5% increase over November of 2016. Year-to-date BMW Group U.S. sales still lag the same period last year by 4.2% at 313,926 deliveries.

Now that new BMW sales are showing improvement, it seems fewer people are looking at pre-owned BMWs. Sales of used Bimmers in November dropped to 18,175 vehicles, a 9.1% decrease from November of last year. Still, the total number of pre-owned BMWs sold in the first eleven months of 2017 was a healthy 217,044, a 3.1% increase over the same period in 2016.—Scott Blazey

[Photos courtesy of BMW AG.]