BMW’s North American sales figures for September 2015 have now been released, revealing a couple of very interesting things. Perhaps most notably, the BMW i3 electric vehicle accounted for 5.5% of all North American sales for BMW for the month, outselling the 1/2 series, the 6 series, the 7 series, the Z4, and the X1 combined. BMW’s two i cars (the i3 and i8) accounted for 6.1% of its September 2015 sales.
If you look at BMW of North America’s passenger cars only, the i3 accounted for 8.4% of sales in September, and the i3 + i8 accounted for 9.3% of sales. (h/t CleanTechnica reader “Brian”)
The exact sales figures are: 1,710 i3s sold during September 2015, up from 1,022 i3s sold during September 2014 — altogether, representing a 67% year-on-year increase in sales of the popular electric city car. Year-to-date numbers show a similar trend, with 7,893 i3s sold so far in 2015, and 3,104 i3s sold during the same period of time in 2014. Altogether, this makes for a 154.3% increase in sales of the model.
The BMW i8 plug-in hybrid (PHEV) has also seen its sales numbers rise notably, with 182 units sold during September 2015, as compared to 58 units sold during September 2014. The year-to-date numbers show something similar, with 1342 sold this year so far, as compared to 67 sold during the same period of time in 2014. Obviously, the difference in numbers is partly due to lack of availability in 2014.
As a whole, the company saw sales rise around 4% in September — a total of 26,608 vehicles were sold during September 2015, as compared to 25,587 vehicles sold during September 2014.
“There’s no doubt about the strength of the US economy and that people continue to buy new cars as evidenced by the BMW record sales result in September,” stated Ludwig Willisch, President and CEO, BMW of North America. “Going into the all-important fourth quarter, the all-new BMW 7 Series and X1 go on sale this month and our expanded production capacity here in the US means greater availability of the very popular BMW Sports Activity Vehicles, especially the X3 and the X5.”
I’ve got to admit that I don’t think that there’s much truth to that assertion. Perhaps those in the upper classes (those that can afford new BMWs) aren’t feeling the pinch, but most Americans currently are.
Either way, though, the company is likely to keep enjoying strong sales — perhaps with electric vehicles (EVs) continuing to gain a larger and larger share of the company’s total business. One would assume that that’s a necessity anyways, considering how rapidly the market appears to be changing. If the company doesn’t continue to grow its EV business, then it could very well fall far behind over the coming years, as affordable EVs begin to explode onto the market. But as we’ve said before, BMW seems to be one of the leaders in this space.