'X' Marks the spot: Bimmer sales chug along

BMW Group increased global sales of BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce brand automobiles by 12.1 percent in March and 13.8 percent for the first quarter of 2010.

The company sold 315,614 vehicles worldwide, up from 277,264 in the first three months of last year. In March, BMW Group sold 141,701 vehicles, up from 126,381 vehicles.

All three brands made strong gains during the month. Sales of BMW brand vehicles climbed 12.7 percent while Mini sales increased by 9.1 percent and Rolls-Royce sales were up 78.6 percent.

“We are back on our growth track in nearly all the automobile markets,” said Robertson. “We intend to continue improving on last year’s figures throughout the second quarter — thanks not least to the new BMW 5 Series sedan and new models such as the 3 Series coupe and convertible.”

He added that “for 2010 as a whole, we are aiming for healthy growth in the single-digit percent range.”

Sales gains were quarterly records in Brazil, up 131.2 percent; Russia, up 11.6 percent; India, up 32.5 percent; China, up 106.1 percent; Austria, up 23.1 percent; South Korea, up 65.8 percent; and Malaysia, 14 percent. Latin America as a market was up 71 percent, and the Middle East sales increased by 13.1 percent.

The BMW Group was the only German auto manufacturer also to make gains in its largest single market, Germany, where it expanded its market share. In the United States, the company posted a 7.4 percent increase for the first quarter.

The company recently announced that BMW Manufacturing Co., its sole manufacturing facility in the United States, had exported more than 1 million vehicles since it began operations in 1994. Currently, about 70 percent of the Greer plant’s production is exported — primarily through the Port of Charleston — to more than 120 markets worldwide.

BMW’s larger model series were strong contributors to first-quarter gains. Sales of the BMW 7 series grew by 54.1 percent, while the BMW X5 and X6 models, both produced in Greer, grew by 9.5 percent combined.

Robertson said new orders for the new X1 and 5 Series sedan models are “looking very good — easily exceeding our already high expectations.”

The new BMW 5 Series sedan has been available in Europe since late March and will launch in the United States in June. Initial deliveries of the new BMW 5 Series Touring and the new Mini Countryman will begin in the autumn of 2010

Land Rover Marches Ahead - record breaking sales month

According to industry sources, around 11,000 Land Rovers were sold in the UK in March, more than any other month since the brand was founded in 1948.
Land Rover, a British-based manufacturer now exporting across the world, has enjoyed a strong run globally so far this year, benefiting from the stabilising of the economy and the snow that engulfed the UK.


Its performance is a boost to Tata. The Indian conglomerate bought the company along with Jaguar from Ford in 2008 for $2.5bn (£1.5bn), only to then endure the luxury car makers losing £281m in the first 10 months under new ownership.
Monthly figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders are expected to show this week that Land Rover sales in March were 60pc up on last year, allowing the brand to breach its previous sales record of 10,600, set in March 2006. March has become the busiest month for sales in the UK since 1999, when, along with September, it was established as the month when new number plates launched.
Land Rover sales are being driven by a new range of models and upgrades, such as the Discovery 4 and Range Rover Sport, and the poor weather, which highlighted the resilience of 4x4 vehicles in a range of conditions.
The performance of Land Rover is more commendable because it has barely benefited from the UK scrappage scheme. The Freelander and Defender models have been relatively popular, but out of 400,000 vehicles allocated for the scheme, less than 2,000 sold were Land Rovers.
However, car dealerships have being reporting a recovery in demand for premium vehicles outside the scrappage scheme as company executives and cash-rich individuals regain confidence in the economic outlook.
In February, Tata Motors revealed that Jaguar Land Rover had returned to profit for the first time in more than a year after demand for Land Rovers surged across the world.
The luxury car maker recorded net profits of 4.6bn rupees (£68m) in the final three months of 2009, the first profit since the third quarter of 2008.
Land Rover sales increased 34pc, attracting customers in North America, Europe and China soared, partly thanks to government incentive schemes. Jaguar sales rose 11.5pc.

At VW, "R" Is for Sports

Volkswagen is officially creating a company to develop sporty cars; it will be called Volkswagen R GmbH.

This may sound familiar--VW already calls some of its specialty cars Rs--and now it's bundling sales and development all into one unit.

VW has the Scirocco R and the Golf R for cars, as well as the dynamic R Line of design trims.

The company will be headquartered near Wolfsburg, Germany, and have a headcount of more than 350.



Read more: http://www.autoweek.com/article/20100317/CARNEWS/100319860#ixzz0iwM8uioC

Wheels Yet to Drop Off for Ultra-luxe car segment

what is becoming obvious to me is that the luxury car market, especially the rarefied segment above the entry-level Mercedes C-Class/BMW 5 Series/Audi A4, seems to have been affected far less than the segment containing the desultory schlepmobiles the rest of us drive to work each day. For instance, anyone thinking that luxury automakers would throttle back their new model introductions this year are sadly overestimating the dampening effect of this not-so-great recession. It is barely two months into the year and already Audi has introduced a new A8, BMW and Jaguar have, respectively, revamped their 5 Series and XJ, and Aston Martin forayed into uncharted territory with its four-door Rapide, while Rolls-Royce expanded its lineup with the Ghost. A new BMW 760Li has been sprung upon us, Bentley souped up its Continental into a Supersports and Lexus has unveiled a new topline GX 470 SUV. Whew!

And that doesn’t even count what’s coming in the short term. Audi, in the midst of perhaps the greatest lineup revamp in luxury segment history, will have me driving its new R8 Spyder in two weeks, Infiniti’s M56 goes even further upscale and there’s an all-new and reputedly even more luxurious BMW X5 on the horizon. And that’s just before April. Some time after that, Hyundai — realizing its experiment in brand extension with the Genesis was not overly ambitious but rather not ambitious enough — will venture even further upscale with the Equus. Double whew!

While some brands such as Cadillac (and Porsche to a lesser extent) that depend on the United States for a preponderance of their sales have been hard hit, the sales of many luxury brands are doing surprisingly well. At the press presentation of its new Ghost, Rolls-Royce’s marketing mavens lamented that 2009’s sales were down from the company’s peak of 1,212 units in 2008. But, what was readily apparent to anyone who can read a pie chart was that Rolls’ 2009 sales were all but equal to 2007’s, itself a very profitable 12 months, thank you very much.

And Aston Martin’s weeping that sales, despite the addition of the phantasmagorical Rapide, might only hit 6,000 units worldwide — far short of the 8,000 sales once envisioned — sounds like so much sour grapes. Remember, back in 1982, Aston sold less than 50 cars. Yes, that was for the entire year and, yes, it was worldwide sales. If Dr. Ulrich Bez, Aston’s CEO, had known a decade ago he might sell 6,000 units in 2010, he would have wet himself with glee.

Closer to home, hardly a month goes by without BMW or Mercedes-Benz Canada (sometimes both) announcing record sales. Sure, a lot of it is the result of cash-on-the-hood leasing deals that might make an ultra-conservative accountant blanch, but, then again, Mercedes Canada isn’t having any trouble selling the new SLS — and its $198,000 price tag is hardly bargain basement.

Audi Canada keeps setting benchmarks, its sales seemingly only hindered by the lack of availability of its most popular models. Even previously downtrodden Jaguar is sounding encouraged, recently announcing its first profitable quarter in more than two years, with managing director Mike O’Driscoll predicting a slow, steady return to the heady days of 300,000 Jaguar/Land Rover combined annual worldwide sales.

Of course, all that optimism could easily be derailed by another economic aftershock (such as the terrestrial ones being suffered by those poor Chileans), but it appears the fabulously well-to-do — and the auto companies servicing them — have weathered yet another financial crisis without having to resort to driving Toyotas.

National Post

-David Booth Vancouver Sun

"Mini-B" BMW planning compact under its own marque

BMW plans to launch small, high-end car: directors
(AFP) – 9 hours ago
MUNICH, Germany — The world's leading luxury car maker, BMW, said Wednesday it planned to launch its own small car that might be based on its Mini model to serve a sector that is developing rapidly.
"We expect by 2020 growth of between four to six percent" in the market for small, high-end automobiles, BMW boss Norbert Reithofer told a press conference in Munich, southern Germany.
"We want to be more present, not just with Mini but also with BMW," he said.
"On the frame of future Mini generations, we could imagine building a BMW," development director Klaus Draeger added, without giving any launch date.
German rival Audi rolled out this year its A1 model to tap into growing demand for high-end autos that consume less fuel.
But Reithofer stressed he wanted BMW to remain "a high-end manufacturer and not a mass manufacturer" that would remain "independent" as the sector looks to consolidation for survival.
The group sold 1.29 million vehicles last year, including 216,000 Minis, and builds motors for small cars in partnership with the French group Peugeot.
On the earnings side, BMW expected a "notable" increase in net profit this year after managing to end 2009 in the black despite a global sector crisis, Reithofer said.
The group forecast sales of more than 1.3 million vehicles, which would keep it ahead of Audi and Daimler, the maker of Mercedes-Benz.
BMW stood by its 2009 net profit of 210 million euros (290 million dollars), a drop of 36.4 percent from the previous year, on sales that slipped by 4.7 percent to 50.68 billion euros.
"We have significantly reduced costs in all sectors of activity," Reithofer said in the group's home town of Munich.
In addition to its eponymous automobiles, BMW owns the Mini and Rolls-Royce brands and also sells high-end motorcycles.
On an operating basis, the automobile division suffered a net loss of 265 million euros however, compared with a profit of 690 million in 2008.
BMW's financial services unit turned in a profit of 355 million euros meanwhile, erasing the loss of 216 million from a year earlier.

Porsche 'Sneaks Up' on Auto world with new Spyder

Almost as amazing as the specs on the Porsche 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid concept is the fact that Porsche managed to keep the car under wraps until its world debut last week at the Geneva Auto Show.

“Frankly, we were pleased that we were able to keep it quiet, and a lot went into that,” said Dave Engelman, a Porsche spokesman.

Mr. Engelman said that his boss, Bernd Harling, publicity chief for Porsche in the United States, had to sign a nondisclosure waiver before seeing the 918.

The hybrid’s privacy was also protected by its very short development time. The concept car had only been gestating since last August. According to Porsche, Wolfgang Dürheimer, vice president of research and development, and Michael Macht, president of Porsche AG and chief executive of the executive board of management, were “discussing what could be done in the wake of the very recent VW/Porsche merger to help Porsche remain Porsche. The 918 Spyder is what they came up with.”


Keeping it a secret was another matter. “It’s easier with in-house concept cars because you can tell only the few engineers who really need to know,” Mr. Engelman said. “When we have to move cars around, there’s always the chance that they’ll get spotted by people with cellphone cameras as they’re being loaded onto the boat.”

He added, “They probably finished it the day before it was first shown.”

The 918 Spyder does a lot of things well, though not all at the same time. It has four drive modes. An all-electric “E-Power” mode has 15.5 miles of range from a lithium-ion battery pack. “Race-Hybrid” mode unleashes the 500-horsepower V-8 gas engine and 218-horsepower electric motor to help the car accelerate from zero-to-62 miles per hour in 3.2 seconds and give it a top speed of 198 miles an hour. An “E-Boost” button allows the driver to call on maximum electric power for “racing and when passing,” Porsche said.

In normal hybrid mode, the 918 Spyder’s V-8 (sourced from the RS Spyder racecar) operates the rear wheels, and the electric motors (with 218 horsepower combined) supply power to both axles as needed. Porsche claims 78 miles per gallon for the 918 Spyder, though that’s factoring in the zero consumption electric range. Green-friendly numbers certainly won’t be seen when the car is driven aggressively.

Another impressive statistic helping Porsche meet stringent European environmental requirements is the car’s carbon dioxide emissions of just 70 grams per kilometer (the BMW X6 ActiveHybrid produces 231).

Believe it or not, the 918 Spyder is Porsche’s first concept car since the Boxster, which was initially shown in Detroit in 1993 and went into production as a 1997 model. Porsche has never built a show car it didn’t eventually put on the market, and the 918 is a possibility down the road. “We’ve said we would like to build it,” Mr. Engelman said. “We’re looking at it very seriously.”

Mr. Macht told Autocar, “There is no one inside Porsche who doesn’t want to build the 918.”

Porsche actually revealed three hybrid vehicles on March 2 in Geneva, but the 918 Spyder had the biggest “wow factor.” Mr. Engelman noted ruefully that it got far more attention than the Cayenne S Hybrid, which was also introduced at the show and actually goes on sale in the United States in the fall. The third is the 911 GT3 R Hybrid racecar, which will be in the United States in two weeks, Mr. Engelman said

VW Unveils new Touareg

Volkswagen unveiled the new Touareg, it's ever-important family hauler that will come gas, diesel and for the first time, hybrid versions.

VW promises class-leading fuel economy with this new Touareg at the Geneva Motor Show. And the hybrid version will be capable of electric-only driving for more than 25 miles. As hybrids go, this one will be fairly macho, capable of hauling trailers or boats weighing up to more than three tons.

All the engines are going to come with an eight-speed transmission, which will save even more fuel.