After being narrowly beaten by Mercedes-Benz in 2020, BMW has clawed back to achieve a decisive victory in the global sales race for premium car brands.
According to a statement released by BMW, the Bavarian carmaker sold 2 213 795 units around the globe in 2021. This puts it ahead of Mercedes-Benz, which managed a total of 2 093 476 passenger cars, while Audi trailed with 1 680 512 customer deliveries.
If you include the Rolls Royce and Mini brands, the BMW Group actually sold 2 521 525 units in 2021, which is an 8.4% improvement over the previous year. Mercedes-Benz Cars and Vans managed a combined volume of 2.4 million units, with the commercial vehicles accounting for 334 210 sales. However, Merc’s car sales were down by 5% over the previous year, which the company attributes to the semiconductor chip shortage, while commercial vehicle sales were actually up 2.6%.
Mercedes also enjoyed some success on the electric vehicle front. Sales of plug-in hybrid and electric cars were up 69.3% to a record 227 458. Sales of fully electric cars, if you include the vans and Smart cars, rose above 99 000.
