In 2021, the BMW Group worked with its Chinese partners to address many challenges, setting a new sales record in the Chinese market, delivering 846,237 BMW and MINI vehicles, an increase of 8.9% year-on-year, leading the premium car market.
Throughout the year, BMW models achieved outstanding results in key market segments. Sales of the BMW 3 Series, BMW 5 Series and BMW X3 each exceeded 150,000 units. Interpreting BMW's forward-looking sports aesthetic, the BMW 4 Series sold more than 10,000 units in the whole year, an increase of 109.7% year-on-year. The representatives of the medium and large luxury SAV , bmw X5 and BMW X7 — also achieved breakthroughs: BMW X5 sales exceeded 50,000 units for the first time in the whole year, while BMW X7 also delivered a good result of more than 10,000 units.
It is worth mentioning that in 2021, the sales volume of new energy models exceeded 48,000 units, an increase of 69.6% year-on-year. Among them, the pure electric BMW iX3 sold more than 21,000 units in the first full sales year. Since 2014, the BMW Group has delivered nearly 140,000 new energy vehicles in China. In November 2021, the innovative BMW iX was launched at the Guangzhou Motor Show, launching a new round of BMW's electric offensive. In 2022, BMW will present 7 new energy products in the Chinese market: including 5 pure electric models, innovative BMW iX, innovative BMW i4, BMW iX3, pure electric BMW 3 series, a pure electric flagship, and 2 plug-in hybrid models.
In addition, under the forward-looking technology and strong product offensive, BMW M brand sales continued to rise, up 38.9% over the same period last year. As a successful car brand in the high-end compact segment, the MINI brand delivered 30, 546 units in the whole year, an increase of 5.2% year-on-year. BMW Motorcycles, which leads the luxury motorcycle segment, delivered 14,309 units in the full year, up 21.4% year-on-year.
Mr. Gao Le, President and CEO of BMW Group Greater China, said: "2021 is still a challenging year, but thanks to the strong support of all parties, the cooperation of dealers and supplier partners, and the recognition of BMW car owners and fans, our business in China has reached a new level. Looking to the future, BMW will continue to take China as its home, and develop in the same frequency and coordinated development with China's economy and society, especially to increase its efforts to promote the electrification process and support China's sustainable development. ”
Globally, the BMW Group delivered a total of 2,521,525 BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce vehicles worldwide in 2021, an increase of 8.4% year-on-year. Among them, the bmw brand's global sales reached a record high of 2,213,795 units, an increase of 9.1% year-on-year, leading the global luxury car brand. In addition, sales of pure electric vehicles doubled to 103,855 units, an increase of 133.2% year-on-year.
In 2022, the BMW Group will continue its efforts in terms of new products, brand experience and customer satisfaction, with plans to launch 26 new products covering bmw main brands, BMW i and BMW M, MINI and motorcycle segments.
"Home in China" helps create a win-win situation
The BMW Group's solid performance in the Chinese market stems from a solid China strategy.
A month ago, BMW held the 2022 "New Year Online Annual Meeting", with the emotional theme of "Home in China" to describe the company's Strategic Upgrade in China: to maintain synergy between the corporate strategy and China's development goals, uphold the "China First" principle, give priority to the needs of the Chinese market in the development of new products, continuously strengthen the co-creation and win-win situation with Chinese partners, and firmly support the sustainable development of China's economy, society and environment.
The BMW Group's Strategic Upgrade in China can be described by a string of "simple" numbers: "1" refers to the "China First" principle; "2" refers to the fact that both BMW and MINI brands are rooted in China; "3" refers to the firm transformation along the three directions of electrification, digitalization and sustainability; "4" refers to the four R&D and digital bases in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang and Nanjing; and "5" refers to the five BMW pure electric models that will be presented to Chinese customers in 2022; " "2025" represents the "new generation" models that will arrive in 2025; "200 million" and "1.5" represent bmw group carbon reduction targets to 2030 and commitment to the 1.5 degree temperature control target of the Paris Agreement, respectively.
"China first" means maintaining strategic synergy with the world while maintaining sufficient independence to respond quickly to market changes, especially at the product concept stage, taking into account the expectations of Chinese customers. BMW's success in the field of fuel vehicles has confirmed this idea, and it will continue to deepen the "China first" strategy in the process of electrification.
In addition to the new energy models mentioned earlier, BMW further improves the new energy vehicle service network. Among about 600 dealers in the country, more than 500 dealers have completed BMW i business certification. In terms of customer experience, the first BMW i brand exclusive experience store has also launched trial operations in Shenzhen.
At the same time, BMW is also continuing to strengthen its partnership with domestic outstanding battery companies, energy companies and high-tech enterprises, jointly developing the upstream and downstream industrial chain of green electric mobility, and improving its comprehensive strength in electric vehicle research and development, production and service. In 2017, the joint venture BMW Brilliance established a power battery center, and completed the second phase of the project in 2020, with a total production of more than 100,000 power batteries so far. By the end of 2021, BMW will have 360,000 public charging piles, and BMW's exclusive parking and charging integration service has also covered 9 airports in 5 major cities across the country and more than 10 popular business districts across the country. My BMW App supports the interconnection control and management of charging wall boxes, and is compatible with the public charging pile search, start-stop, payment and review services of major charging operators, as well as BMW reservation parking charging services.
Electrification is one of BMW's concrete actions to firmly support China's "double carbon" goal and fulfill its corporate social responsibility with practical actions. BMW is not only focused on reducing carbon emissions during the driving of cars by promoting electrification, but also setting carbon reduction targets that cover the entire life cycle of the car. By 2030, the BMW Group plans to reduce the average life cycle carbon emissions of bicycles by 40% compared with 2019, reducing emissions by at least 200 million tons. In China, BMW, together with upstream and downstream partners and supplier representatives of the industrial chain, launched the "Green Transformation Initiative for the Industrial Chain" with the China Development Research Foundation in June 2021 to promote carbon emission reduction throughout the life cycle of electric vehicles.
By 2025, the BMW Group's electrification strategy will introduce "next-generation" models with completely redesigned IT and software architectures, a new generation of high-performance electric drive systems and batteries, and a large number of more low-carbon and environmentally friendly reusable materials based on the concept of circular economy. The BMW Group is expected to deliver around 10 million pure electric vehicles worldwide by 2030. Around 2030, MINI and rolls-Royce brands will also move towards full electrification. The BMW Group will continue to lead the way in innovation and development and promote the future of mobility.