BMW's China sales up 42 pct in H1 2021

BERLIN, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- BMW's sales in China increased by 42 percent in the first half (H1) of this year compared to the previous year, with 467,956 vehicles delivered in its most important single market, the German car manufacturer said on Tuesday.

After a strong first quarter (Q1), BMW continued to "perform extremely well" in the second quarter (Q2), the company said.

The BMW Group currently expects China's automobile market to grow 10.3 percent over the course of this year.

BMW's sales in its home market Europe rose 35.4 percent to a total of 504,834 vehicles in H1 2021. In the same period, deliveries in the United States recovered by 52 percent to 184,436 units.

Total H1 deliveries of the BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brands rose by almost 40 percent year-on-year to 1,339,047 vehicles, setting a new sales record, according to BMW.

The group's revenues rose by 28.1 percent year-on-year and reached 55.36 billion euros (65.7 billion U.S. dollars) in H1 2021. Net profit jumped to 7.6 billion euros, up from 362 million euros in H1 2020, it said.

The company benefited from a strong demand, "enabling us to achieve significant growth," said BMW Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Oliver Zipse in a statement. However, due to continuing semiconductor bottlenecks, the second half of the year would likely be "more volatile."

Assuming that neither the COVID-19 pandemic nor the semiconductor supply situation would worsen significantly and counting on stable prices for raw materials, the BMW Group expects business to develop positively overall. (1 euro = 1.19 U.S. dollar)