US AND EUROPE SALES GIVE BMW MINOR BOOST IN 2025

MUNICH (Germany), Jan 9 (Bernama-dpa) -- German carmaker BMW delivered more cars in 2025 than in the previous year, with sales growth in Europe and the United States (US) saving the group from another year of falling numbers, German Press Agency. (dpa) reported.

Some 2.46 million vehicles were sold across the group, which also owns the MINI brand, representing a small annual increase of 0.5 per cent, the Munich-based firm reported on Friday. 

China, on the other hand, continues to drag down the figures for BMW, as it has done for other German manufacturers. The weak sales in China led to BMW issuing a profit warning in October.

BMW delivered 1.02 million cars in Europe last year, 7.3 per cent more than in the previous year. In the US, the figure was 417,638, an increase of five per cent. 

In China, however, sales fell by 12.5 per cent to 625,527 cars. 

Head of sales Jochen Goller described it as a "challenging environment."  

The growth in the US market surprised many given the high tariffs on vehicle imports from Europe. However, BMW benefits from having a large US plant in Spartanburg in South Carolina, which produces roughly half of the BMWs sold in the US.

BMW said it had not passed on the costs of the tariffs to customers, helping sales but affecting profit margins.  

The subsidiary MINI increased its sales by a huge 17.7 per cent to 288,290 cars, while the core brand BMW suffered a decline of 1.4 per cent overall, to 2.17 million cars. Rolls-Royce kept sales almost stable at 5,664.

The demand for electric cars, which has often driven BMW's figures with strong growth rates in the past, has also slowed down: Although there was still a small increase of 3.6 per cent to 442,072, growth rates have generally been much higher in the past.

-- BERNAMA-dpa