It’s been a while since I’ve written a post on U.S. BMW sales. Bottom line up front – partly that’s because there is very little connection between enthusiast BMW owners driving older cars and those interested in purchasing new BMWs. (Certain M models like the new G87 M2 are the exceptions that prove the rule). But that said, BMW had a good year in 2023 so let’s try to look behind the numbers.
As shown in the AI-generated image above, BMW sales were up 9 percent in 2023. In my previous posts I’ve highlighted how BMW in the U.S. was steadily becoming a truck/SUV company rather than a car company. In 2022 the split was 63 percent trucks and 37 percent cars, with BMW counting the smaller X1 and X2 as cars. But the trend reversed in 2023, with cars up 27.4 percent and now comprising 44 percent of sales. SUV sales were down 2 percent and now are 56 percent of U.S. sales.
The new X1 is clearly a hit with U.S. buyers, with the new U11 design selling 3x more in 2023 than its F48 predecessor in 2022. The new U12 X2, built on the same platform but not so SUV-looking, should be in dealerships this spring and BMW surely hopes for a similar result. Looking at the bread and butter 3/4 and 5 Series cars, BMW has to be pleased with how sales have held up with no recent model introductions.
The G30 generation 5-Series launched in 2017, and the new G60 model has not reached dealerships in real numbers yet. But sales were still up 7.4 percent. For the G20 3/4-Series, they debuted in 2018 yet sales were up almost 21 percent in 2023 (84,774 vs. 67,354). It’s not entirely clear when a new 3/4-Series will be introduced. According to this article, a small, all-electric i3 will be built in 2025, with a new combustion engine car not arriving until 2027. Whether BMW thinks there is enough demand for that car to come to this market will be interesting.
The press release accompanying the 2023 sales numbers trumpeted the fact that BMW sold 45,417 battery electric vehicles last year, representing 12.5 percent of total 2023. That’s more than ever before but pales next to Tesla’s reported 654,888 2023 U.S. sales, a 25 percent increase from 2022 and almost double BMW’s total U.S. sales.
When I last looked at BMW new car sales in 2021, the G01 X3 was by far the most popular BMW model. Introduced in 2017, sales were down 4 percent this year. BMW has a new G45 model coming out in 2024 for 2025 year sales. The current G05 X5 was introduced in 2019, and BMW has to be concerned sales were down almost 12 percent in 2023. The top-of-the-line G07 X7 was also down 6.2 percent. The fact that overall sales were up last year is truly a success for BMW cars. No matter what old-school enthusiasts think about new BMWs.
As I said at the top, there is almost no correlation between what we think and what BMW is making today. A member of the E39 M5 owners Facebook group created a humorous short video capturing the sentiment – Joe Pesci as an E39 owner visiting a BMW dealership for the first time since 2003.
I say different strokes for different folks. Plenty of modern BMW classics are out there for us old-schoolers, and the secondary market for well-tended BMWs, especially M cars, exploded during the pandemic. Even though the market has somewhat corrected, values are still strong. And obviously, no one at U.S. BMW HQ in Woodcliff Lake, NJ cares what old-school enthusiasts think about new BMW models.
It will be interesting to see if the car vs. truck resurgence continues in 2024, and how BMW manages the gradual transition away from combustion engine cars. All we old-schoolers need to do is maintain our modern classics. May both sides wish each other well.