AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)04/06 Report--

German luxury carmaker BMW said on April 6 that its global sales fell 20.6 per cent to 477111 vehicles in the first quarter due to the COVID-19 epidemic, of which 116452 new cars were delivered in China, down 30.9 per cent from 168434 in 2019. In addition, BMW's sales in Europe and the United States fell 18.3% and 17.4%, respectively.

BMW said it predicted that sales would continue to grow at the beginning of this year, but due to the impact of the epidemic in February, sales in China's auto market fell sharply, and by March, the impact of the epidemic had spread to Europe and the United States. It has temporarily closed 80% of its dealerships in Europe and America because of the epidemic.

The Chinese market is BMW's largest single market in the world. according to sales data, although BMW's sales maintained a steady growth in January, due to the severe impact of the domestic COVID-19 epidemic in February, sales fell by 30% in the first quarter compared with the same period a year earlier. However, with the situation of domestic epidemic prevention and control improving, BMW's sales in China showed signs of gradually recovering in March. It is understood that BMW's two complete vehicle factories and engine factories in Shenyang have gradually resumed production on February 17.

On April 1, brilliance BMW Tiexi new factory officially opened in Shenyang. According to the plan, the overall construction area of the new Tiexi factory is about 3 square kilometers and will be completed and put into production in 2022. The new factory will have a new stamping workshop, body workshop, painting workshop, final assembly workshop and external infrastructure, mainly producing pure electric and plug-in hybrid cars. After the completion of the project, the new Tiexi factory, together with the existing Tiexi factory, Dadong factory, powertrain factory and R & D center, form a BMW production base in China.

The epidemic has been effectively controlled, and the Chinese automobile market has begun to recover, but the spread of the overseas epidemic has not been well controlled so far, which has brought a lot of uncertainty to the automobile industry. It is understood that production will be suspended at BMW's SUV plant in South Carolina, BMW Group's largest vehicle assembly plant, which is expected to stop production for at least two weeks. In addition, BMW plants in the United States and Europe will suspend production until April 19, and a plant in South Africa will also be closed. BMW CEO Chipze said that BMW's delivery volume in the global market is expected to decline in 2020, and the group's pre-tax profit is expected to be lower than in 2019, the third consecutive year of decline.

Although the epidemic in overseas markets has brought a lot of uncertainty to BMW, BMW Group said it is optimistic about the future development of the Chinese market. Gaulle, president and chief executive of BMW Group Greater China, said that so far, 95% of BMW dealers have resumed business and that demand in the Chinese market will gradually return to normal in the coming months. In the face of this huge automobile market in China, BMW Group plans to launch 17 products in the Chinese market, including the first pure electric iX3 model, pure electric version BMW i3, mixed version X1, X3, 5 series and so on. In addition, the beam car, a joint venture between BMW and Great Wall, will also produce fuel-fueled and pure-electric MINI cars.

BMW Group's revenue in 2019 was 104.2 billion euros (817.7 billion yuan), an increase of 7.6 percent year-on-year. Net profit was 5.022 billion euros (39.4 billion yuan), down 28.9% from a year earlier, while BMW Group (including BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce brands) sold 2.52 million vehicles worldwide in 2019, up 1.2% from a year earlier. Of these, sales in China reached 724000, up 13.1% from a year earlier.

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