Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft (BMW) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

The BMW Group released its sales figures for the third quarter today. Where do you see positive signs?

Market conditions were difficult worldwide, but we still managed to achieve growth in the U.S. and Europe. In Europe, sales of our fully electric vehicles performed particularly well. In the third quarter, we sold just under 82,000 units. That's up almost 38% on last year. This means 1 in 3 vehicles delivered to customers was a BEV. We are also pleased with the development in our home market, Germany. Here, we are seeing particularly high growth for our fully electric BMW and MINI models. At the same time, demand for the new BMW iX3 remains strong. Also, the huge customer interest worldwide in our new models, BMW X5 and 3 Series, underscores our ability to innovate.

China remains challenging. How is business there at the moment? And what is our plan?

Like other manufacturers in China, we face a shrinking car market. In the first 9 months, we sold about 376,000 vehicles there. That's 22% less than in the same period last year. We expect a boost from the new BMW iX3, which will be launched in November with a version that is specifically tailored to the needs of our Chinese customers. The response to the first model of the Neue Klasse in China has already been very positive, and other models like the BMW i3 and BMW iX5 will follow next year. And of course, we are also thinking about how to be successful in our largest market in the long term. At our Capital Markets Day in late September, we announced a number of measures. For example, expanding local production in high-volume segments, the launch of the Neue Klasse. By 2030, we aim to build around 95% of all vehicles we sell in China locally. And at the same time, we are considering expanding exports of vehicles from China to Southeast Asian markets.