BMW 2004 Annual Report Download - page 12

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to the overall positive development in the Asian
region was the car market in South Korea where the
high debt levels of private households held down
overall consumer spending.
Sales of new cars continued to recover in Latin
American markets. The number of light vehicles
sold in Brazil rose by 10% to almost 1.5 million units.
The recovery in Argentina continued in 2004 after
the slump in unit sales at the beginning of the
decade: the number of light vehicles sold in 2004
almost doubled.
Rigorous implementation of product and
market initiative
The BMW Group continued to pursue its strategy
of expanding the range of vehicles and is now repre-
sented in all of the relevant premium segments of
the international car markets with the BMW, MINI and
Rolls-Royce brands.
Following on from the market launch of the
BMW 6 Series Coupé and BMW X3 in January, the
Group began sales of the BMW 6 Series Convertible
in spring 2004. The new BMW 5 Series Touring
was presented to the general public in May and, in
September 2004, the new BMW 1 Series made its
successful debut in the compact category, a new
segment for the BMW brand.The BMW Group also
introduced the first BMW Convertible with a diesel
engine in autumn in the form of the new BMW 320Cd
Convertible.The new BMW M5, the most powerful
5 Series car in the history of the BMW brand, was
also presented in autumn 2004 and will be available
from April 2005 onwards. More new models have
been presented in the first few months of 2005,
namely the new BMW 3 Series, the revised BMW 7
Series and the new BMW M6, all of which will be-
come available in the course of 2005.
The model range of the MINI brand was broad-
ened in 2004 by the addition of the MINI Convertible,
which is now available with three engine options.
The Rolls-Royce brand celebrated its 100th
an-
niversary in 2004 and, to mark the occasion,launched
a special centenary model of the Rolls-Royce Phantom,
limited to 35 cars. In spring 2004, Rolls-Royce
Motor Cars also unveiled the Rolls-Royce Centenary
Experimental Car, the 100EX.
Sales volume well above previous year’s level
in virtually all markets
In total, 1,208,732 BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce
brand cars were sold during 2004, an increase of
9.4% compared to the previous year.
The USA continued to be the market with the
largest sales volume, with a total of 296,521 cars
sold in 2004, 7.0% more than in the previous
year. No European premium automobile manufac-
turer sold more vehicles in the USA in 2004 than
the BMW Group.
The BMW Group’s sales volume in Western
Europe rose to 707,012 units (+10.8 %).
Whilst the overall car market in Germany grew
by just one percent in 2004 compared to the pre-
vious year, the BMW Group was able to increase its
sales volume in this market to 283,586 units
(+10.9%).
The BMW Group has more than doubled its
sales volume in the United Kingdom over the past
five years. The number of cars sold by the BMW
Group in the United Kingdom in 2004 rose by 8.0%
to 145,272 units. The BMW Group increased car
sales in all other European markets and thus man-
aged to buck the weak trend registered in several
countries. For example, the BMW Group increased
its sales volume in Italy to 77,248 units (+15.3%)
and in France to 46,773 units (+9.4%), despite the
fact that the total number of sales sold in these
markets stagnated. Amongst its European markets,
the BMW Group registered the highest growth rate
in Greece where the number of cars sold rose by
57.9% to 6,640 units.