Even though the global automotive market faced a host of challenges last year, 2022, BMW retained the crown for the best-selling German premium automaker last year, beating Mercedes-Benz with a minimal advantage.
BMW sold a total of 2,100,692 units around the globe last year, which represents a decrease of 5.1 percent compared to the previous year. Mercedes, in turn, reports 2,043,900 sales, down 1.0 percent compared to the previous year. Even though both brands saw a decline in their deliveries, the firm from Munich managed to deliver 56,792 more vehicles worldwide to claim the victory.
BMW seems to be proud of the fact that its hybrid and electric vehicles sales were up by 35.6 percent last year to a total of 372,956 units. Mercedes sold 319,200 plug-in and fully electric cars, an increase of 19 percent, including sales from Smart, almost every second car sold by Mercedes-Benz Passenger Cars in 2022 was battery-powered (44 percent of overall retail unit sales).
Mini also registered a small decline of 3.0 percent compared to 2021. Interestingly, the Mini Cooper SE was the marque’s best-selling model in 2022 with a total of 43,744 sales around the globe, representing an increase of more than 25 percent compared to 2021. In total, BMW and Mini delivered 215,755 battery-powered cars, 107.7 percent more than their BEV sales in 2021.
Rolls-Royce Sales Increases
Rolls-Royce was BMW Group’s only automotive brand to post an increase in deliveries last year. In fact, 2022 was the best year in the luxury marque’s entire history with 6,021 cars handed over to new customers.
With sales in 50 countries around the globe last year, Rolls-Royce enjoyed yet another year of record sales. The Middle East, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, as well as the United States, saw the highest year-over-year sales growth from all regions. The Americas, in turn, remained the largest single region for the British brand, while China’s importance grew as the country is now the second-largest Rolls-Royce market. The Goodwood-based company also saw record sales in the United Kingdom and Germany.
Even more importantly, Rolls-Royce enjoyed growing demand for its Bespoke commissions resulting in customers paying an average of more than $500,000 for their new Rolls-Royce. The Middle East was the brand’s leading region for Bespoke products.
Torsten Muller-Otvos, Rolls-Royce’s CEO, averred that 2022 has been a momentous year for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. “Not only did we reveal Rolls‑Royce Spectre, our marque’s first ever fully electric series model to the world, it was also the first year we ever delivered more than 6,000 cars in a single 12-month period, with strong demand across our entire product portfolio. But as a true House of Luxury, sales are not our sole measure of success: we are not and never will be a volume manufacturer,” he stated.
The CEO, speaking of the brand’s portfolio, disclosed that the Cullinan kept its position as the brand’s best-selling model, followed by the Ghost, which was its best-seller in the Asia-Pacific region. The automaker also proudly says demand for the Spectre, its first fully electric production model, currently exceeds its expectations but there’s no detailed information regarding the number of reservations made so far.
Mercedes-Maybach, in turn, also had a record-breaking year with 21,600 units delivered to customers, up 37 percent compared to 2021.
While sales of both BMW and Mercedes were down last year, the two brands saw positive signs of recovery in the final quarter of the year. The folks from Munich enjoyed a 10.6 percent growth in Q4 2022, while their colleagues from Stuttgart registered a 17 percent increase compared to the third quarter of the year.
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