China propels BMW to sturdy income, Germany lags – KIRO 7 Information Seattle

FRANKFURT, Germany – (AP) – Booming sales in China helped German luxury automaker BMW achieve higher profits in the first three months of the year, despite its home market of Germany lagging behind the ongoing recovery in global auto markets after the worst of the pandemic shutdowns let himself.

BMW said its sales in China nearly doubled to 230,120 vehicles in the quarter, partly due to the shutdowns in early 2020 when China was first hit by the pandemic. However, sales across the Asia region even exceeded pre-pandemic levels.

In most of Europe and the United States, sales grew by double digits. An exception was the company’s home market in Germany, where sales fell by 5%. The result underscored the strong ties between the German auto industry and China; Competitor Volkswagen announced on Wednesday that it posted a 61% increase in sales there in the first quarter, which contributed to a significant increase in profits.

BMW CEO Oliver Zipse said the quarter had shown that our business model is successful even in times of crisis. He said the company’s focus is on developing digitally connected electric cars. The company more than doubled its sales of battery and electric vehicles to 70,200 in the same quarter of the previous year.

BMW’s net profit rose from 574 million in the same period last year to 2.83 billion euros. Sales rose by 15% to 26.78 billion euros. Profitability per vehicle, defined as the operating result of sales, reached 9.8%, a strong increase from 1.3% in the same quarter of the previous year and within the company’s long-term target range.