Millions of people might be cutting back on streaming subscriptions in response to the cost-of-living squeeze, but they’re certainly not cutting back on buying BMWs. The German automaker just posted its best annual sales figures of all time, and says that EV growth is on-track, despite other brands seeing a slowdown in interest in electric cars.
The BMW Group shifted 2,555,341 BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce vehicles in 2023, which represents a 6.5 percent upswing on the numbers for 2022, with the numbers for December being more than 10 percent higher than those for the same period the year prior. EVs accounted for 367,183 of the 2.56 million total, which is 74.4 percent more electric cars than BMW sold in 2022, and meant the automaker hit its target of EVs making up 15 percent of overall sales.
Breaking the numbers down into the individual brands shows that BMW delivered 2,253,835 cars in 2023, a rise of 7.3 percent, while 330,596 EVs found homes (up a whopping 92.2 percent). And bear in mind the i5 and iX2 weren’t available for the full year, and the i5 Touring is still to be launched.
Related: BMW Isn’t Going To Cut Prices As It’s Already Selling Plenty Of EVs
BMW M moved 202,530 cars, the division’s best year, and one that was 14.3 percent better than 2022, and Rolls-Royce also broke its own records in 2023, delivering 6,032 cars, of which only a handful were the new Spectre because it didn’t reach customers until the fourth quarter. The BMW Motorrad motorcycle department shifted 209,257 bikes, which was another record, and up 3.1 percent, leaving Mini as the only real disappointment. Overall Mini sales climbed only 0.9 percent to 295,474 units, though EV sales did swell by 3.5 percent to 45,261.
Looking at BMW’s figures by region reveals that sales were up across the board, but that the growth was much slower in Asia than in the the U.S. But Asia still took the lion’s share of BMW sales with a 1.07 million total, compared with 942,805 for Europe and 395,741 for America.