Sign up to create alerts for Instruments,
Economic Events and content by followed authors
Free Sign Up Already have an account? Sign In
Quotes
All Instrument Types
- All Instrument Types
- Indices
- Equities
- ETFs
- Funds
- Commodities
- Currencies
- Crypto
- Bonds
- Certificates
Please try another search
🙌 It's Here: the Only Stock Screener You'll Ever Need Get Started
BMW sales up 8.4 percent in July but lead over Audi shrinks
Published Aug 08, 2014 05:19AM ET
BERLIN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) - BMW's (DE:BMWG) lead over German rival Audi is shrinking, despite increasing deliveries in July, as the luxury-car leader posts lower volume growth in the United States and Europe.
BMW said on Friday that sales of premium cars and sport-utility vehicles at its core brand rose 8.4 percent last month from a year earlier to 139,399 autos. Audi, Volkswagen's (DE:VOWG_p) flagship luxury brand, announced on Thursday 144,000 deliveries in July.
July was the third month this year that saw Audi outsell BMW, which has been the premium-car sales leader since overtaking Daimler's (DE:DAIGn) Mercedes-Benz division in 2005. Audi, which has ranked second since 2011, and Mercedes have each vowed to take the top spot by the end of the decade.
BMW said seven-month brand sales increased 10 percent to a record 1.03 million autos. Still, Audi has shrunk the year-to-date sales gap to BMW to 12,397 autos despite an ageing model lineup.
A year ago the gap was 21,035 autos, so it has narrowed by 40 percent this year, according to company records.
Weakening momentum at BMW reflects lower sales gains in core European markets and the United States, where seven-month group deliveries, including the Mini and Rolls-Royce brands, were up 2.8 percent and 5.4 percent respectively.
By comparison, Audi's sales increased 6.7 percent in Europe and 13 percent in the United States. VW's flagship division has also been growing faster in China than BMW and Mercedes.
BMW Chief Executive Norbert Reithofer said in a June 2 interview with German magazine Automobilwoche that the carmaker was reconsidering to what extent competing with rivals Audi and Mercedes (DE:DAIGn) for the title of luxury-sales champion was still a priority for BMW.
(Reporting by Andreas Cremer and Maria Sheahan; Editing by Christoph Steitz and Susan Fenton)
Related Articles
Add Chart to Comment
Confirm Block
Are you sure you want to block %USER_NAME%?
By doing so, you and %USER_NAME% will not be able to see any of each other's Investing.com's posts.
%USER_NAME% was successfully added to your Block List
Since you’ve just unblocked this person, you must wait 48 hours before renewing the block.
Report this comment
I feel that this comment is:
Comment flagged
Thank You!
Your report has been sent to our moderators for review
Add a Comment
We encourage you to use comments to engage with other users, share your perspective and ask questions of authors and each other. However, in order to maintain the high level of discourse we’ve all come to value and expect, please keep the following criteria in mind:
Enrich the conversation, don’t trash it.
Stay focused and on track. Only post material that’s relevant to the topic being discussed.
Be respectful. Even negative opinions can be framed positively and diplomatically. Avoid profanity, slander or personal attacks directed at an author or another user. Racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination will not be tolerated.
Perpetrators of spam or abuse will be deleted from the site and prohibited from future registration at Investing.com’s discretion.