Munich, Germany-headquartered luxury automobile manufacturer BMW Group Automotive enjoyed a robust growth in business as its sales almost tripled year-over-year in the first half of 2021. Sharing results for the first half (January to June) period of this year, BMW revealed that it sold 702,474 units of its various luxury cars during the second quarter (Q2) and 1,339,080 units in the first half of this year. The Q2 sales figure represents a growth of 44.6 per cent, while the YTD figure represents an increase of 39.1 per cent, respectively.

The group operates several leading automobile brands, including BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce. BMW sold 617,749 units in the Q2 and 1,178,292 units in the first half of the year, enjoying growth rates of 43.5 per cent and 39.9 per cent, respectively.

MINI sold 83,116 units in Q2, up 52.5 per cent from the corresponding quarter of 2021; while its H1 sales jumped 32.6 per cent year-over-year to settle at 157,799 units.

The sales of plug-in electric cars of BMW and MINI brands more than doubled to settle at slightly more than 83,000 units in the second quarter and more than 153,000 units in the H1 period of the year. More precisely, the two luxury brands 83,060 units of the plug-ins in the second quarter and 153,267 units in the first half of this year. The figures represent growth rates of 166.9 per cent and 148.5 per cent in the Q2 and H1 plug-in sales.

As a group, BMW also saw a significant increase in sales of its fully-electric vehicles. It sold 36,089 units of battery-powered electric vehicles (BEVs) in the second quarter, up 183.9 per cent from the same period of 2020. PHEV sales grew 139.4 per cent year-over-year to 117,178 units in the first half of 2021.

Commenting on the EV sales, the group said, “With 153,267 units sold in the first half of 2021, the BMW Group grew its sales of both fully-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles by 148.5 percent year-on-year – making electro-mobility a major growth driver for the company in absolute terms as well.”

Without revealing figures for particular models, the world’s leading premium manufacturer of automobiles said that the fully-electric iX3 gave a significant boost to its sales.

BMW Group has a goal to sell 1 million plug-in by the end of 2021. As the renowned manufacturer has already crossed the milestone of 850,000; it is expected to achieve the goal much ahead of the deadline.