Lead
In the past 2021 BMW achieved positive growth of 8.9%,
With a result of 846,000 units,
Surpass Mercedes-Benz and lead the "BBA" luxury brand.
Lead
Recently, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi, known as the "troika" of the German system, respectively announced sales data for 2021. In the first place is BMW, which surpassed Mercedes-Benz with a full-year delivery of 846,200 vehicles in China, an increase of 8.9% year-on-year, ranking first in the BBA list.
The second is Mercedes-Benz, which delivered 758,900 new cars in the Chinese market in 2021, down 2% year-on-year, and suddenly opened a gap of nearly 100,000 vehicles with Bmwra.
Finally, Audi, according to FAW-Volkswagen's statistics, Audi brands, including imported models, delivered a total of 701,300 new cars in the Chinese market in 2021, a year-on-year decrease of 3.6%.
As shown in the figure, BMW is the only brand in the BBA with positive sales growth, not only that, but its new energy sales account for a distance of nearly 6%. Leading the pack seems to be the key word for BMW 2021.
Guaranteed Supply
In December last year, BMW announced that in order to ensure the supply of chips in the long term, it has signed agreements with INOVA Semiconductors and GROFOUNDRY Semiconductor, which will guarantee the supply of millions of chips per year for the BMW Group.
Some of these chips will be used in ISELED smart LED technology jointly developed by BMW Group and other manufacturers, which is also equipped for the first time in the innovative pure electric BMW iX and will be promoted in more models.
BMW said the agreement is a classic example of a commitment to build more resilient supply chain partnerships, restore the balance between supply and demand for chips in the automotive industry, and further accelerate technological innovation.
Not only in the field of chips, BMW has also done a lot of "precautionary" work in terms of batteries.
BMW i4 architecture
CHIPZER, chairman of the BMW Group, said the company has now signed more than $23.8 billion in battery contracts that will be used for the i4 and iX and other models bmw will produce after 2024. It is reported that the newly increased orders are mainly supplied by China's CATL times and EWELL Lithium Energy, South Korea's Samsung SDI and Sweden's Northvolt AB.
In fact, BMW's layout in the battery field is not just as simple as signing orders with more battery suppliers. Purchasing key raw materials for batteries, building its own battery trial production plant, and seeking charging cooperation are all things BMW is doing.
In 2019, BMW signed contracts with Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Co., Ltd. and Glencore Switzerland to produce raw materials for battery manufacturers Ningde Times and Samsung SDI. In the same year, BMW's 200 million euro battery cell technology center was also officially put into use.
In addition, in order to avoid the impact of the price fluctuations of rare earths, one of the battery raw materials, BMW invested heavily in research and development of the fifth generation of electric motors does not include rare earth elements. Not only that, BMW will also strive to promote the industrialization of battery recycling technology, with a target recycling rate of more than 90%.
electrification
A few days ago, BMW announced 3 rough stages of electrification development, and BMW proposed that by 2023, the brand will provide about 13 pure electric products worldwide. By 2025, BMW plans to sell more than 1/4 of the models in China will be pure electric vehicles, and in the future, BMW will also launch pure electric vehicle products in almost all market segments.
Domestic consumers' awareness of BMW's pure electric products should start from the BMW i3 and i8 models, and BMW will also regard the launch of these two cars as the first stage of its electrification development. At present, BMW is in the second stage of electrification development, and now BMW has three pure electric models of iX3, iX and i4, and will also launch pure electric versions of the 5 series and 7 series models.
In the future, BMW will begin what it calls a "new era," which also means the official start of the third phase of its electrification. The currently known plan is that in 2025, BMW will officially release a new pure electric model, and the entire MINI model will also be purely electrified. In addition, BMW officials also said that in the next 10 years, BMW will deliver more than 10 million pure electric vehicles in the global market.
It can be seen that as the new energy vehicle market changes from a blue ocean to a red ocean, BMW must not only do a good job in the "old line" of fuel vehicles, but also challenge the electrification. In the Chinese market alone, Tesla, which has a "professional echelon" before and its own brands, is about to launch new products to the market, and then Volkswagen Group, Mercedes-Benz and other peers have also carried out a more perfect electric vehicle product layout before it. The Volkswagen ID. series based on the MEB platform has currently launched five models in China, with monthly sales exceeding 10,000 units in November 2021, Audi's e-tron series and Mercedes-Benz's EQ series are also expanding their lineups, and the Mercedes-Benz EQS based on the pure electric platform has also been launched in December last year.
Therefore, BMW's "triple crown" based on 2021 is only a temporary phenomenon. As the penetration of electric vehicles continues to increase, the proportion of electric vehicles in the entire luxury car market will also increase. The competition of electric tracks has just begun, and if the boat does not advance against the current, it will retreat, and the sales war of German luxury brands will continue.