A favorable world auto market helped German automaker BMW AG to post profits in the second quarter 11 percent higher than the same period last year, results released yesterday showed.
The Munich-based firm said that it had made 1.95 billion euros (US$2.18 billion) profit on 25 billion euros of revenue.
BMW chairman Harald Krueger said the firm’s performance was a new record for the second quarter, putting it on track to hit its targets for the whole of this year.
“We forecast slight increases, and hence new record figures, for sales volume and profit before tax in 2016,” Krueger said in a statement.
Unit sales across its three car brands — BMW, Mini and Rolls Royce — climbed 5.7 percent from April to June to 605,534.
That brought underlying, or operating, profit to 2.7 billion euros — 8 percent higher than the same period last year.
Most of BMW’s growth came from Europe and Asia, with unit sales up 11.2 percent and 7.3 percent.
However, unit sales in the Americas declined 8 percent overall, with a double-digit drop of 10.2 percent in the important US market.
Growth was largely driven by increased orders for flagship models such as the BMW 7 series.
The firm also said that electric models accounted for a larger proportion of vehicles sold.
Customers in the Netherlands and Sweden were particularly keen, with electric cars accounting for double-digit proportions of BMW car sales in June in the two western European nations.
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