It’s not all doom and gloom for the automotive industry. the 4rd quarter saw MINI sales up 1.9% thanks to a recovering European and Asian markets. One of the key contributors was the all electric Mini Cooper SE which saw around 10,000 sales in the quarter.
All the news wasn’t good however. For the year the MINI brand delivered a total of 208,144 (-20.0%) vehicles to customers in the year to the end of September.
While BMW doesn’t breakdown MINI sales regionally, it does give an overview that is a bit telling. Not surprising China and Germany were the bright spots given how the pandemic has played.
Germany
The BMW Group increased sales by 12.1% (85,579 units) in its domestic market in the third quarter. Due to the coronavirus, the number of cars sold since the start of the year was down 16 percent overall to 201,865 units. With an increase of around 44%, sales of electrified vehicles have been very positive since the beginning of the year reaching a share of around twelve percent of total sales.
Europe
In the Europe region, a total of 648,107 (-19.7%) BMW and MINI vehicles have been delivered to customers since the start of the year. Third-quarter sales were 7.1 percent higher than in the same period of last year (275,618 units). Sales of electrified vehicles (+85.1%) were particularly encouraging during this period. Overall, the situation in Europe continues to vary from region to region due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Americas
With 99,052 vehicles sold in the third quarter (-17.0%) and 251,154 in the year to September (-25.7%), the sales situation in the Americas currently seems to be the hardest hit by the pandemic. However, last quarter customer demand for BMW vehicles in the US recovered faster than expected. In the last quarter, sales of electrified vehicles in the Americas region increased by more than a quarter (+28.2%).
China
In China, sales of BMW and MINI vehicles totalled 559,681 units for the first nine months of the year; 6.4 percent higher than in the same period of last year. After an encouraging second quarter, recovery continued in China in the third quarter with a significant sales increase of 31.1% to 230,612 units. Per September the sale of electrified vehicles in China increased by 7.4 percent (20.713 units).
