BMW Group Vehicle Sales Rise 1 pct in June

Posted 07 July 2006 @ 05:55 pm EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

Frankfurt (Reuters) - Germany's BMW, the world's largest premium carmaker, sold only 1 percent more vehicles to customers in June amid a tough comparison from a year earlier, its said on Friday. "Consequently, the at times above-average strong growth in the previous months was not achieved," BMW said in a statement.

Click to Enlarge A man looks inside a vintage car of German luxury carmaker BMW before the ...

Deliveries of BMW brand vehicles rose 1.9 percent to 111,640 units, while Mini sales dropped 4.2 percent to 18,817 cars. The 130,530 units delivered last month bring the total for the first half to 698,470 vehicles sold -- a gain of 8 percent.

"With the sales performance in the first half, we continue to be the leading supplier of premium automobiles," BMW sales and marketing chief Michael Ganal said, reaffirming his forecast that 2006 would be a record year in terms of deliveries. First-half results were given a boost by the 30 percent rise in deliveries of the BMW 3 Series saloon and estate mid-size model.

On Thursday, rival Mercedes Car Group said vehicle sales grew by 6.4 percent in June to 118,800 units, powered by rising demand for its premium Mercedes-Benz brand. Volkswagen's premium brand Audi has also reported that it raised deliveries to customers in June by 2.7 percent to nearly 80,000 vehicles and forecast full-year sales of around 880,000 units.

Luxury carmakers like Audi and BMW have been posting record years as European car buyers migrate from the middle of the market traditionally home to volume brands such as Ford or GM's Opel and toward either premium or low-cost vehicles. Shares in BMW edged 0.3 percent lower to 39.02 euros by 0839 GMT, broadly in line with the DJ Stoxx European automotive index.