Financial Associated Press (Shanghai, editor Zhao Hao) news, in 2021, the German BMW company in the United States sales surpassed rivals Mercedes-Benz and Lexus, for the third consecutive year to lead the U.S. luxury car sales list.
According to a report released last week, the company sold 93,031 vehicles in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2021, down 5.8 percent from the fourth quarter of 2020 (98,750 units), but the company sold 336,644 units in the U.S. in 2021, up 20.8 percent from 2020 sales (278,732 units).
Benefiting from sales of X3 crossovers and X5 models, BMW's passenger car sales in the U.S. rose 18.30 percent to 156,804 units in 2021, while light trucks (pickups) rose 23 percent to 179,840 units.
BMW's main competitors in the United States appear to be doing mediocrely, with Toyota's Lexus selling 304,500 vehicles in the U.S. in 2021, while Mercedes-Benz sold 276,100 units, both lower than BMW.
It is worth mentioning that the performance of the three luxury brands BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Lexus in 2020 is almost equal, with 278,700 units, 274,900 units and 275,000 units respectively. But in 2021, Lexus sales in the United States rose about 10.7%, far behind BMW's 20.8%, while Mercedes-Benz grew by less than 1%.
Pieter Nota, a member of the BMW Group's sales management committee, told the media that the company's performance in 2021 was mainly due to the decision to maintain many of its semiconductor orders in the early stages of the new crown pandemic. At the time, some competitors cut some of their orders in order to cut back on spending, but BMW maintained a bullish stance and paid off a few months later.
Just as Toyota surpassed GM in overall sales in the U.S. last year, in part because of its supply chain budget and forward-looking judgments about the situation, the luxury car market has become a test of which companies can best navigate the coronavirus turmoil. Nota expects chip shortages to continue to squeeze luxury car sales in the coming months, but could ease somewhat in the second half of the year.
Nota told the media that with the launch of the electric model iX by BMW in the face of global electric vehicle sales growth, the company will compete head-on with Tesla, and sales will increase again in 2022. Nota revealed that BMW hopes to double its global electric vehicle sales in 2022.