BMW claims global luxury sales crown for 2023, Rolls-Royce and Mini tread water

The BMW Group has announced its sales numbers for 2023, with both the core BMW brand and posher Rolls-Royce marque hitting new highs.

With Mini’s Countryman crossover, and namesake hatch/convertible models coming to the end of their lifecycles, BMW’s other British brand was happy to stay in the black as it revealed their replacements.

The group as a whole sold 2,555,341 vehicles in 2023, up 6.5 per cent from 2022.

BMW

With its 2,253,835 sales, BMW is claiming the global luxury sales crown for 2023, as well as an “all-time” sales record for the brand.

While the company called out the X1, 3 Series, and X3 as being “especially popular with customers”, we don’t know how these models’ sales compared to previous years, as well as their compatriots.

Similarly Rolls-Royce is reporting the Cullinan crossover as its most popular model, followed by the “entry-level” Ghost sedan and the more expensive Phantom.

The BMW Group typically provides a fuller breakdown of sales figures for each of its model lines in its annual report, due later this quarter.

M-branded models accounted for 202,530 or 9.0 per cent of all BMW sales in 2023. The 14.3 per cent increase in M sales meant the sub-brand posted its highest ever figures.

This has no doubt been helped by M’s presence in every major vehicle line, branching out into performance electric vehicles, and the launch of its second-ever dedicated model, the polarising XM crossover.

Electric

Pure electric vehicle (EV) sales across all three brands totalled 376,183, up 74.4 per cent from 2022. EVs now account for 16.7 per cent of all of the company’s sales.

Of these, 45,261 came from the Mini brand. There EVs made up 15.3 per cent of the brand’s sales. This should increase once the new electric Cooper hatch, developed and produced in conjunction with China’s GWM, as well as the new electric Countryman models, hit full production stride.

The corporation also sold a further 190,303 plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV), bringing its total electrified vehicle sales to 566,586, an increase of 30.6 per cent from the previous year.

Regions

Below are the combined regional figures for its BMW and Mini brands.

In Germany, its home market, BMW sold 281,986 cars, a jump of 11.7 per cent.