BMW announces record quarterly profit

Renewed US spending, revised product range and Chinese car boom drive record profit for German manufacturer
prestige new cars  » Get the best price on a new BMW

New product, strong global demand for its vehicles, especially in the burgeoning Chinese market, and a positive rebound in US spending has helped German manufacturer BMW achieve a record per-car profit for the second quarter of 2011.

Up 9.6 per cent on the year prior, the luxury car maker posted earnings before interest and taxes equivalent to 14.4 per cent of sales. The margin beats Audi and Mercedes-Benz whose profits tallied 11.8 and 10.7 per cent respectively.

Key to such strong sales is an unprecedented demand for the revamped 5 Series, deliveries of the luxury sedan up 80 per cent on the year prior. The all-new X3 SUV is also proving popular, the model's sales more than doubling against the previous model's. These two models alone have fuelled an 18 per cent rise in the brand's H1 deliveries.

Moving forward, the recently revised 1 Series range, i3 and i8 electric vehicles and upcoming MINI Coupe are certain to retain the group's strong position; BMW also saying demand for its Rolls-Royce product in China has reached "amazing" levels. Across the group, 2011 sales are projected to exceed 1.6 million vehicles.

As demand grows, BMW will employ an additional 2000 people this year. Adding capacity in emerging markets, such as China, BMW is also said to be considering an additional two new manufacturing facilities. The expanding line-up and increased capacity should allow BMW to comfortably reach its goal of 2 million vehicles per annum by 2020.

Read the latest Carsales Network news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at the carsales mobile site