BMW overtakes Mercedes in Asia; sales up by 13% - BMW-SG

**Puny** · #1 (**permalink**) 23-11-2004, 10:24 AM

Source: The Straits Times (23 November 2004 - Money H16)

BMW overtakes Mercedes in Asia; sales up by 13%

Sales could exceed 90,000 units by year-end if BMW goes full throttle
(by Christopher Tan - Senior Correspondent / Straits Times)

GERMAN luxury carmaker BMW is poised to report its strongest year in Asia, going by January to October data made available to The Straits Times. In fact, this is likely to be the first time it overtakes traditional market leader Mercedes-Benz by a convincing margin.

For the first 10 months of the year, 77,880 Beemers were sold in Asia, up 12 per cent from 69,030 in the same period last year. At this rate, the marque could finish the year with more than 90,000 cars sold - 14 per cent more than last year's total, and treble the figure in the 1980s.

"We don't make forecasts, but all I can say is, it will be a good year," said Mr Roland Krueger, who became BMW Asia's managing director four months ago. "It looks very promising."

In Singapore, Mr Krueger pointed out that BMW sales over the first 10 months have already exceeded last year's full-year figure. Up to October, 2,207 BMWs were registered here, against 2,146 for the whole of last year.

Archrival Mercedes-Benz is still ahead in Singapore, with 2,908 cars registered up to October, although it looks unlikely yo reach last year's 3,745 units. The Mercedes figures include 6 yo 7 per cent of parallel-imported cars.

Mr Krueger said the firm's performance here has not been affected by a corruption probe into senior management at its dealer, Performance Motors, and the dealer's parent company, Sime Darby. Three key executives have quit since the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau started its probe four months ago.

"There has been no impact on business," Mr Kreuger said. "And that's most important to me."

He described his role as "an ambassador for Asia". "We should be increasing our voice in Munich," he said of BMW Asia's function here.

All key BMW markets are now partly or fully owned sales subsidiaries. The region contributes less than 10 per cent to the brand's worldwide sales. In the first 10 months, BMW's worldwide sals rose 9.6 per cent to reach 830,698 units.

In China, where a manufacturing facility was set up a year ago, BMW sales rose 11.2 per cent to 13,169 units up to October. Including a dozen other main markets and a handful of minor markets, BMW sales in the Asia-Pacific over the 10 months were about 10 per cent higher than Mercedes', and 30 per cent higher than sales by Audi, which has traditionally been strongest in China.

Including its Mini and Rolls-Royce subsidiaries, BMW expects group sales to hit 1.4 million units by 2008, up from 1.1 million last year.