BMW group global sales collapsed 14.6% in September, to 121,621 units.
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Sales plunged 25.8% in the US with deliveries of 18,506 units down from almost 25,000 units a year earlier. In western Europe sales fell 16.9% in the month to 74,231 units, the automaker said in a statement.
Year-to-date sales were up 1.7% in the first nine months, with global deliveries of 1,113,972 units, compared to 1,094,849 a year earlier.
BMW brand sales were, however, down slightly (-0.1%) to 928,230 units. The Mini brand has been holding volumes up with sales of 184,915 to the end of September, up 12.1% on a year ago. But sales fell 5.5% last month.
Rolls-Royce appeared largely immune from the downturn so far with September sales up 7.5% to 129 and year-to-date growth of 42.8% to 827 cars.
BMW said trends in emerging markets remained positive in September – although they could not entirely offset the decline in the mature volume markets of western Europe and the United States.
The group saw its highest growth rates in Eastern Europe: especially Russia, with a gain of 27.5% to 1,813 units. South America deliveries also rose a significant 21.9% to 1,026 vehicles while China sales were up 16.5% to 6,703. India sales rose 61.5% to 294.
“The situation remains challenging: The recent escalation in the financial crisis is also affecting consumer confidence in the premium segment,” sales and marketing chief Ian Robertson said.
“However, we do expect the current weakness in demand to pass over time. With many new highly-efficient models being launched in the next months, we are well equipped for the future.”
