X6 Sales

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Article from the local newspaper-The Greenville News.Thanks! PalBay

BMW X6 sales off and running
By Jenny Munro • BUSINESS WRITER • June 7, 2008

BMW's X6 sports activity coupe is off to a strong start -- with 2,652 sold since its launch this year in the United States and Europe and its future production for the year already on order, according to the company.


The German automaker increased its May sales of BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce brands worldwide by 3.9 percent, to 133,496 vehicles from 128,434. That's also slightly more than the company delivered in April -- 133,205, up from 118,378 the previous year.
Year-to-date BMW sales were up 6.7 percent to 618,731 units -- the first time BMW has ever delivered that many vehicles by the end of May. Last year, year-to-date sales at the end of May totaled 579,745.
Driven by the BMW 1 Series, the X5 sports activity vehicle and the 5 Series touring models, BMW brand vehicle sales rose 2 percent to 110,704 vehicles in May from 108,515 the year before.
The automaker outpaced Audi and Daimler, its premium-car rivals, for the month.
Audi reported a sales increase of 0.8 percent to 88,200 vehicles delivered during May. The company said that the changeover of its best-selling A-4 model depressed demand.
The company is "expecting strong year-on-year growth in the second half," said Rupert Stadler, Audi chief executive officer.
Also, Daimler reported it sold 111,100 Mercedes-Benz, Smart and Maybach brand vehicles in May, down 4 percent from the same month in 2007. The company reported it delivered 98,100 Mercedes-Benz brand vehicles in May.
Year-to-date sales for its three brands were 500,500, an increase of 10 percent.
Two of the vehicles leading BMW's sales -- the X5 and the X6 -- are built in BMW Manufacturing Co.'s plant near Greer, as is the Z4 roadster and its variants. The plant is in the midst of a $750 million, three-year expansion that is anticipated to increase capacity to 240,000 vehicles a year by 2012. In 2010, production of the X3, the smaller sibling of the X5, will move to the Upstate, and production of the Z4 will move to Germany.
"Our order books for the X6 are already full for the rest of 2008," said Ian Robertson, member of BMW's Board of Management responsible for sales and marketing. "With the X6, we are once again creating a whole new vehicle segment -- that of the sports activity coupe. This new kind of vehicle combines the versatility of an SAV with the dynamic driving performance of a sports coupe."
Its Mini division also drove sales for Munich-based BMW Group. Sales of Minis grew 14.2 percent in May to 22,682 units. Rolls-Royce delivered 110 models of the Phantom family in May, an increase of 96.4 percent from 56 in the same month a year ago.
Despite a continuing weakness in the U.S. economy and high gas prices, BMW's U.S. market grew by 3.1 percent to 31,781 vehicles in May. Sales in Europe as a whole grew by 4.4 percent, with the growth in Eastern Europe's emerging markets increasing by 21.3 percent.
Sales in the Asian region rose by 6.9 percent to 13,210 vehicles from 12,354 the year before in May. China, Asia's largest market, grew 15.9 percent to reach a total of 5,625 vehicles, up from 4,855.