BMW Remains World’s No. 1 Luxury Brand in 2014, but Audi and Mercedes Are Closing In

BMW remains the world’s best-selling luxury car brand in 2014, with sales reaching 1,811,719 units, more than Audi’s 1,741,100 units and Mercedes’ 1,650,010.

The BMW brand saw an increase of 9.5 percent on the previous year, marking the marque’s best-ever year. Sales in December also achieved a new high of 177,954 units, up 14.2 percent on the same month last year. 2014 also marked the introduction of new models such as the 2-Series Coupé (27,933 sales), 2-Series Active Tourer (13,091 sales) and X4 (21,688 sales).

However, BMW’s best-seller remains the 3-Series family, with 476,792 deliveries (+2 percent). Sales of the 5-Series reached 373,053 units (+1.7 percent), while the new BMW X5 racked up 147,381 sales (+37.4 percent). Deliveries of the BMW 4 Series models totaled 119,580 units. As for BMW i vehicles, the i3 and i8 sold 16,052 units and 1,741 units respectively.

2014 was a record year for Audi too, with the VW-owned premium car manufacturer handing over 1,741,100 cars to customers, 10.5 percent more than in 2013. In December, Audi sold around 150,000 units, up 14.7 percent on the same month a year before.

Growth was fueled particularly by its SUVs and the A3 family, with all Audi SUVs accounting for 507,500 sales, up 15.8 percent compared to 2013. Almost one in three Audi customers chose an SUV in 2014, with the Q3 and Q5 racking up the highest sales.

Mercedes-Benz also delivered more cars than ever before in 2014, 1,650,010 to be exact (+12.9 percent). Record sales were posted in every month of the year 2014, including in December with 163,171 units sold (+17.2 percent).

The brand benefited from strong demand for its compact models, with the A-, B-, CLA- and GLA-Class making up more than a quarter of total sales, or 463,152 units (+24.7 percent). The C-Class was the top-volume model of Mercedes-Benz, with 316,792 units sold globally in 2014 (+4.4 percent). The E-Class followed with 257,571 sales (+6.2 percent), while the S-Class remained the world’s best-selling luxury sedan with 103,737 vehicles sold (+82.2 percent).

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