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The Cullinan leads the way with over half of deliveries attributed to the SUV. The electric Spectre had a nice start to its career in 2024 but 2025 was a return to reality. Are you watching JLR?
The Wraith/Dawn combo ended in 2023, to make way for the Spectre. It wasn't a direct replacemnt though and may struggle to sell in equivalent numbers. Ahh, the electric car future that hasn't delivered as expected.
Data source: BMW Group.
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Deliveries were often around the thousand mark until 2010, when they took an upward turn. They peaked in 2022 and 2023 at 6,000 and slipped back to 5,700 in 2024.
2025 nearly reached that figure but fell short by 1%. Not that volume is something that RR chases. Customer demand will dictate the number made.
Regional sales are not provided by the owner BMW. I'm assuming China is down and was the reason for 2025's slightly lower figure and for the year before.
While the Group maintained sales in most regions, Asia was the fly in the ointment. China in particular is economically struggling so a 10% fall was registered. It's still the largest region for the company but now it's only just. It was in 2020 that Asia overtook Europe but maybe in 2025 that will switch back.
I would have liked to have published BMW sales by model but the detail has been compromised sufficiently that it would be pointless in my opinion. Up until 2024, the detail was amazing, then acceptable until 2020 but since then poor.
One detail that I think that is worth noting is the XM SUV flagship (pictured above). That model sold 6,750 in 2023 and 7,800 this year. Surely that is a flop of major proportion. Price, looks and competition elsewhere within the BMW range have all had an impact. Other marques offer some compelling alternatives as well.
Data source: BMW Group.
RR has settled around the 6,000 mark at this point. A weaker market in China affected sales but bespoke models are doing well so that has compensated.
Such is the demand in that regard that the company is to spend £300 million in increasing capacity for customised vehicles. It's the largest plant investment since it was built.
The Cullinan SUV is still the most popular model but the new electric Spectre accounted for a third of sales in its first full year. Will RR become a fully electric marque? We don't know but with demand for BEVs stalling, it pays for car manufacturers to keep their options open.
Data & Pictures: BMW Group.
Production was down 6% in 2024 after a 12% increase in 2023. It was in 2015 that production in Germany dropped below 50% of the BMW Group total and it hasn't returned there since. In fact, it dropped each year thereafter until 2021 when it reached 31%.
Since then it has moved back toward Germany, now at 43%. The current German production figure of 1.087 million is among the highest. Yet if the total volume is down 6%, where was the reduced volume felt? The answer is virtually everywhere else.
I would have thought China's 5% fall was a good result in view of the depressed economy there but I wonder whether profit was affected in achieving that. MINI production in the UK was down 40% which was much more than I expected. It will be better in 2025 but by how much will be interesting.
MINI production was transferred from the Netherlands to Germany which accounts for the slump in the Netherlands and some of the gain at home. The Z4 is made in Austria and that had a heavy reduction in volume.
I don't know what is made at partner plants but it could be many models if they are from kits. They are located in China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Data & photograph: BMW Group.
BMW: The marque was up 2.5% for the year. It's still a few thousand sales short of Mercedes-Benz despite slightly closing the gap and just ahead of Lexus despite the gap narrowing.
The top model the X5 returned a similar result to last year while the X3 was up 9%. The 3 and 4-Series were both down, 16% and 8% respectively. The X7 and X1 conversely were up 3% and 30%.
I don't know what was expected of the new XM (picture above) but it must have been much more than this. The figures shout it's a belly flop which goes to show that even a successful niche hunter like BMW gets it wrong sometimes.
Data source: BMW.
Expanding the range over the years has been hit and miss in terms of success. Now in 2024 US sales are the lowest full year result since its introduction but it still has a solid following here. It is currently achieving 7% of the BMW brand sales.
Production for BMW, MINI and Rolls Royce was up 12% in 2023. A new joint venture plant came online in China, at Zhangjiagang. It's in partnership with GWM and has started producing electric MINIs. It technically should go under Partner Plants but they are not separated by BMW and this one is so I put it under China .
Data source: BMW Group.
As has been the case with many luxury marques, increase was challenging in 2023. Managing how many are sold is critical to maintain a balance with demand and supply. 6,000 may be the sweet spot for RR.
The Cullinan SUV made up nearly six out of ten vehicles delivered. The Ghost came in next with one in four. The Phantom (picture above) is very exclusive and performed strongly to increase 21%. The new Spectre electric model (pictured at the base of the article) is now up and running...very quietly. The two door Wraith and Dawn siblings have been discontinued, replaced by the Spectre.
Data source: BMW Group.
The BMW Group set a new sales record in 2023. The BMW brand was up 7%, MINI 1% and Rolls Royce just above even for a 6% overall gain.
Everyone talks electric these days and BMW delivered 330,600 of them in 2023. That was up 92% and nearly 15% of the total BMW brand. Fully electric MINI's came to 42,300, which was up 3.5% and just over 15% of the total. Rolls Royce has just joined the electric car club with the new Spectre arriving during Q4 of the year.
RR had a very successful year with more cars delivered than ever before in its 119 year history. Charles Rolls and Henry Royce first met in 1904 (120 years ago in case you missed that). So there has been a press release to apprise of developments.
Global sales were 6,032. Regional deliveries were led regionally by North America and China. Bespoke commissions reached record levels too. 180 new jobs have been created and 130 have joined the Future Talent programme. A planning application has been submitted to extend the Goodwood site.
Production has ceased for the Wraith and Dawn models while the electric Spectre is now being delivered. As for detailed data, the press report was limited but otherwise informative. That's all RR needed to do but I would always like more data.
What they did do very well was photographs, plenty of them. So I'll make the most of that and forget about the minimal data facts provided.
Rolls Royce has an evocative name that is immediately associated with class and quality.
The Cullinan was a necessary and successful addition to the range but it is the traditional saloon car that encapsulates all that Rolls Royce stands for in my mind anyway.
Rolls Royce passed 4,000 deliveries for the first time in 2014 and I thought that was probably as high as it would get. For a few years, it seemed so then a sudden upturn and 5,000 was reached in 2019. That was because of the Cullinan SUV and I hadn't allowed for such a model when making my prediction.
The Cullinan has passed the 50% mark for the company and this sort of vehicle is an essential part of any car maker's range...except Mclaren and I'm thinking they will come around eventually. It would be ultimately suicidal not to.
Looking at the picture above, they certainly have quite a presence. The problem is it's too long for my garage. Shame about that. But as the old saying goes, if it doesn't fit in the garage then you can't afford one.
Data source: BMW Group.
BMW used to produce some decent data for its car division but it's now too limited to bother publishing here. It still does some useful info so here it is. It's for BMW, MINI and Rolls Royce.
Regional sales: After an 8% gain in 2021, a drop of 5% was recorded in 2022. Not a bad result all things considered (profit was good too). All regions were down but none by much.
Assembly plants: 33% of BMW production was in Germany, up slightly. China was steady at 28% as was the USA (17.5%). Both contract plants contracted and the Partner Plants withered even more so.
