BMW stays ahead of rivals Audi, Mercedes in global-sales race.

[-=Hot|Ice=-]

FRANKFURT -- BMW AG stayed on course to remain the world's top-selling premium automaker after global sales of the company's core brand rose 9.3 percent to 128,446 units in September.


The rise puts BMW ahead of competitors Audi, whose sales grew 17 percent to 120,200 in September and Mercedes-Benz, whose sales rose 2 percent to 120,982 in the same period.


"At the end of the third quarter we find ourselves well on course to deliver our target of more than 1.6 million vehicles in 2011 and to remain the clear number one among premium manufacturers once again this year," BMW's head of sales Ian Robertson said in a statement Monday.


Overall sales of BMW Group vehicles including the Mini and Rolls-Royce brands grew 16 percent in the first nine months of the year to 1.23 million units. In September, the group sold 159,214 vehicles, a rise of 11.4 percent.


Sales of BMW's X3, X1 and 5-series models continued to help lift deliveries for the carmaker. Sales of the revamped X3 small SUV rose 260.6 percent to 11,345 units in September, while deliveries of the X1 rose 24.7 percent to 12,535 over the same period. The midsized 5 series sold 27,811 cars last month, a rise of 29.7 percent.


In September, the group's Mini brand sold 30,387 cars, a rise of 20.5 percent. Deliveries were boosted in part by the success of the Mini Countryman, which has sold 76,000 units since its launch just over a year ago. Mini sales since January have increased by 24.1 percent to 208,216 units.


The group's ultra-luxury brand Rolls-Royce grew sales 41 percent in the first nine months to 2,441 units.


In the U.S., the company's biggest market, the BMW Group reported sales of 25,749 vehicles in September, 11.4 percent more than a year earlier.


At home in Germany, BMW's second-biggest market, growth rebounded from stagnant summer sales figures, with deliveries rising 9.9 percent to 23,809 units in September. Sales in China, BMW's third-largest market, rose 20.9 percent in the same period to 18,588 deliveries.


Since January, the BMW brand has sold 1.02 million cars, a rise of 14.5 percent over 2010 figures.


Audi aims to overtake BMW as the most successful luxury automaker by 2015 and is targeting sales of 1.3 million cars this year. The automaker said Monday that its new-car sales rose 17.4 percent to 973,200 units in the first nine months.


Mercedes said last month that sales of its Mercedes and Smart brands will probably surpass 1.35 million in 2010, compared with an earlier forecast of 1.3 million.


Sales of the Mercedes brand reached 919,288 units in the first nine months of the year, a rise of 7.6 percent.

Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111010/ANE/111019999/1494#ixzz1aVnCIdBM

 

[mini_cooper4]

BMW needs a Skoda type of brand now to stay in the game.
Mini is too exclusive and expensive. BMW FWD will be too expensive too.
Opel would have been great...

 

[K-A]

I feel that Mercedes does too.

I wish Mercedes could buy some mass manufacturing, appliance brand, and let that brand rake in the mass sales and FWD/Economical/Entry Level aspect, while they let Mercedes stay as premium and prestigious, without belittling the Benz name with those said FWD/Economical/Entry Level type of offerings.

 

[mini_cooper4]

I feel that Mercedes does too.

I wish Mercedes could buy some mass manufacturing, appliance brand, and let that brand rake in the mass sales and FWD/Economical/Entry Level aspect, while they let Mercedes stay as premium and prestigious, without belittling the Benz name with those said FWD/Economical/Entry Level type of offerings.

Exactly what I mean for both BMW and Benz

 

[EnI]

Not a good idea, IMO.

Both BMW & Daimler had failed marriages - one with Rover, the other with Chrysler. What's currently on the table are the cooperations with other manufacturers: Daimler is cooperating with Renault-Nissan, Aston Martin, Tesla; BMW with Peugeot-Citroen, Fisker, probably GM. And those are specific cooperations & projects.

With non-premium brand in portfolio Daimler AG (MB Passenger Cars) & BMW AG will no longer be premium car manufacturers, don't you think? And being exclusively a premium manufacturers brings a certain cache & image. Look around they are the only ones left - together with Aston Martin!

All the other premium brands are parts of a mass car manufacturer (Lexus - Toyota; Infiniti - Renault-Nissan; Acura - Honda; Cadillac - GM; Lincoln - Ford; Audi, Bentley, Porsche, Bugatti, Lamborghini - Volkswagen; Jaguar, Land Rover - Tata; Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Ferrari, Maserati - FIAT; Volvo - Geely).

So, MB / Daimler , BMW & Aston Martin are the only true independent premium carmakers left! Add some exotic (hardly relevant) brands & manufacturers as well ...

And with all the brands expanding, MB & BMW can survive on their own - with a little help of partners (especially when it comes to small & FWD cars; and eg. selling engines to other brands for specific models ... all to make platforms & engines more profitable).

IMO MB's strategy to cooperate with other luxury barnds (Aston Martin, Infiniti) can be a bit risky. BMW plays it safer - only cooperating with non-premium brands, supplying non-premium cars only.

Eg. Infiniti cars with MB tech (eg. engine, gearbox etc) can turn out to be direct rival to some MB models in certain markets. Both brands are premium (ok, not same tier though - but there is some overlapping with low-end MB models in some segments) - and Infiniti can benefit quite a lot.

I'm not sure cooperation with a (potentially) rival premium brand is a good idea. But I guess that was Renault-Nissan's price for Daimler's access to R-N's small-car platforms & production facilities. Mind next smart For4 is based on R-N's "A platform" (=Twingo), and will be manufactured in Renault's plant in Novo Mesto, Slovenia (while Renualt & Nissan microcar will be produced together with smart For2 in smart's plant in Hambach, France .


So, I can see MB & BMW staying independent - and without non-premium brand in their brand portfolio. But they will have to be very clever & careful with whom & on what project they are going to cooperate.

 

[mini_cooper4]

Buying Opel won't make BMW or Benz not premium if they don't use Opel platforms on their premium cars.
The difference between Chrysler and Rover vs Opel is that Opel is a GERMAN manufacturer which is know to build good cars at good prices.

 

[braaf]

Eni, no one is suggesting a partnerahip like MB and Chrysler did. Rather BMW to buy or own a mass production manufacturer. Seeing that they have partnership with PSA, why don't BMW just buy them, and practice greater economies of scales with engines and chassis.

 

[EnI]

Such acquisition doesn't come cheap! Right huge amounts of money are spent for R&D in automotive industry, rather for acquisitions. And any fresh capital is used for R&D or expansion. Mind that with acquisition the new owner gets all the liabilities of the acquired company. That's the biggest disadvantage. In it's been proven every time: the premium part of the company usually becomes a milking cow for the whole company - since mass-brands are much more exposed & rigid due larger production capacities. Check eg, the VAG - Audi generates the major share of VAG's profit! While some divisions are still in red numbers.

Also - at least in BMW case - smaller (premium) companies are more flexible & more agile. And more focused. Resources are used effectively & cleverly. Now, with acquisition the parent company has to relocate some resources (best HR, capital etc) to deal with the acquired company. And that can make the parent company weaker - since their resources are limited.

No, acquisitions are a no go. More disadvantages than advantages. Also hardly two companies are compatible - especially in corporate culture.
Therefore companies like BMW & MB rather opt for expansion of their premium brand model portfolio. Perhaps introducing new sub-brands, or even new brands. In-house.

 

[braaf]

Such acquisition doesn't come cheap! Right huge amounts of money are spent for R&D in automotive industry, rather for acquisitions. And any fresh capital is used for R&D or expansion. Mind that with acquisition the new owner gets all the liabilities of the acquired company. That's the biggest disadvantage. In it's been proven every time: the premium part of the company usually becomes a milking cow for the whole company - since mass-brands are much more exposed & rigid due larger production capacities. Check eg, the VAG - Audi generates the major share of VAG's profit! While some divisions are still in red numbers.

Also - at least in BMW case - smaller (premium) companies are more flexible & more agile. And more focused. Resources are used effectively & cleverly. Now, with acquisition the parent company has to relocate some resources (best HR, capital etc) to deal with the acquired company. And that can make the parent company weaker - since their resources are limited.

No, acquisitions are a no go. More disadvantages than advantages. Also hardly two companies are compatible - especially in corporate culture.
Therefore companies like BMW & MB rather opt for expansion of their premium brand model portfolio. Perhaps introducing new sub-brands, or even new brands. In-house.

Damn you Eni, I don't have a reply.

 

[Merc1]

And the amazing this is that he is right, and told it just like it is - for a change. Mercedes and BMW need to focus on growing their own business. Mercedes is going to do just that at the top and the bottom, and I think it will work. Though I do wish Mercedes would gobble up Aston-Martin or at least forge a partnership with them, but I can see from MB's point of view why it isn't worth it. Aston is a beautiful, but unhealthy on the long term partner.


M

 

[K-A]

I still think that in a perfect world, M-B gobbling up (not partnering with, but buying) a mass brand, so they can focus the M-B brand as the cache-brand, would be best case scenario. The fact that the majority of the fleet will be little entry-level cars and SUV's, etc. means that in the future, M-B might very well chip away at the cache built by the cars in the past. Also, I find BMW's strategy to be much much better, "whoring out" the smaller cars to lower-end companies, but leaving the higher end ones to themselves.

M-B sharing their Premium cars with Infinite is a bad bad decision. I'm not kidding in that I will definitely think of switching cars if the next Infiniti G is riding on an E-Class chassis, with E-Class parts, etc.

 

[Merc1]

I seriously doubt that would happen. Why would Mercedes lend Infiniti one of the best chassis to compete with them head-on, doesn't make sense. Mercedes isn't going to do that.

M

 

[K-A]

Weren't there reports saying that they would do just that? Give the E chassis to the G? Also I heard rumors that AMG will be tuning for Infiniti's (i.e, "Infiniti AMG").

Hopefully those are all drastic rumors!

 

[Merc1]

No I don't remember that, if it was it was just wild speculation. An E-Class chassis wouldn't even make sense as an entry-level G anyway.


M

 

[Wolfgang]

Here's an update.


Infiniti will build new compact car on Mercedes platform

FRANKFURT -- Nissan Motor Co.'s Infiniti brand plans to build a compact car based on a small-car platform from Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said.

The new model will mark an expansion of the cooperation between Daimler and the Renault-Nissan alliance, Ghosn said at the Frankfurt auto show on Wednesday.

Nissan did not comment on reports that the car would be built in Europe where it will challenge the Audi A3 and BMW 1 series.

Nissan executive vice president Andy Palmer told Automotive News Europe that it is "not a sacred cow" that Infiniti cars should only be built in Japan, but would not comment on where the car will be built.

Infiniti needs a compact car in Europe to compete with entry-level models from Audi and BMW, Palmer told ANE in an interview at the auto show on Wednesday.

He said the Infiniti will launch in 2014 with gasoline and diesel engines, based largely on the Etherea concept that the brand unveiled at the Geneva auto show in March and is showing again here in Frankfurt.

The compact would likely eventually account for about 40 percent of Infiniti's European sales, Palmer said.

Picture: NYT -- Infiniti's new compact will follow the design of the Etherea concept.

Earlier, Reuters reported that Nissan plans to start building the car in Europe in the next couple of years, making it the first Asian luxury brand to manufacture in the region.

Ghosn said the next generation Infiniti models will be built outside Japan due to the strength of the yen.

His remarks came at a joint press conference with Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Daimler AG.

Zetsche said "there is extremely limited cross consideration" comparing Mercedes and Infiniti brands among buyers shopping for upscale cars.

So far, the companies are cooperating to explore electric versions of the Mercedes Smart car and the Renault Twingo, as well as a small delivery van based on Renault architecture.

Zetsche said the companies' cooperative efforts are based on practical projects, and thus differ from the disastrous Daimler-Chrysler alliance of the last decade.

Sources: Bloomberg, Reuters. Paul McVeigh contributed

Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110914/ANE/110919912#ixzz1aayTDeKz

 

[Merc1]

Right, it will be small cars. Not E-Classes and what not, that would be crazy dumb for Mercedes lend out anything beyond the A/B platform to Nissan/Infiniti.


M

 

[Sunny]

Nissan did not comment on reports that the car would be built in Europe where it will challenge the Audi A3 and BMW 1 series.

And not with A class which will have the same platform and be probably more expensive than an Infiniti version? What makes even less sense is why would Infiniti need a small FWD platform from Mercedes when Nissan makes a ton of them.

 

[Merc1]

Yeah thats right, doesn't make sense either. I guess they want something different to pin their small Infinitis on so people won't holler about them being tarted up Nissans.

M

 

[Wolfgang]

^^^
Here's a recent article w/ more details.

Mercedes Will Provide Platform for New Infiniti Luxury Car

Daimler ramps up increasingly successful partnership with Renault-Nissan alliance.

by Paul A. Eisenstein -- The Detroit Bureau

Infiniti will use a Mercedes-Benz platform when it goes to production with a compact luxury car based on the striking Etherea concept vehicle. The all-new Mercedes-Benz B-Class platform will be shared with Infiniti which plans to use it as the foundation for a compact luxury offering based on the popular Etherea concept car. That’s the latest move to emerge from a rapidly expanding alliance between Mercedes’ parent Daimler AG and erstwhile rivals Nissan and Renault, which have made a successful go of their own Euro-Asian alliance.

Mercedes Will Provide Platform for New Infiniti Luxury Car | TheDetroitBureau.com

 

[Mr. Mercedes]

You guys are too precious about MB's 'platforms'. 1/2 the VAG empire is running about on a golf platform, yet you would hardly consider comparing a TT to a Golf GTI. At the end of the day it comes down to how well the suspension is tuned, the steering calibrated etc. to determine the overall driving characteristic. Sure the platform plays a big part, but it is just a starting point.