BMW Group ended 2008 with what it called a “moderate” 4.3% overall decrease in unit sales though expanded ranges helped Mini and Rolls-Royce both set records.
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Sales totalled 1,435,876 (compared with 1,500,678 in 2007).
“The month of December was again marked by consumer reticence,” the automaker said, reporting sales off 26.4% to 112,423.
Sales and marketing chief Ian Robertson said the EfficientDynamics-branded fuel consumption and CO2 emissions-reducing technology now widely used in BMW and Mini models was “one clear reason” the automaker “performed comparatively well with a 4.3% decrease” for the full year.
“Month to month, we were able to sell more vehicles with fuel saving technology [830,000 for the year] than some car companies do in a year,” he claimed.
BMW brand sales were down 5.8% to 1,202,239 units for the year and off 26.2% to 97,256 units in December.
With help from new Clubman versions but minius months of convertible models due to a lengthy model changeover (August ’09-March ’09), Mini achieved a record 232,425 deliveries in 2008, up 4.3% though December sales dipped 27.8% to 15,010.
Rolls-Royce sales climbed 20.0% to 1,212 for the year after falling 16.9% to 157 last month.
The United States remained the group’s biggest single market with sales down 9.7% to 303,190.
Germany was second with sales off just 0.1% to 284,353 in a market down 1.8%.
