BMW Group profits rise to £13.5bn despite sales dip

The BMW Group more than doubled its profits to €16.1 billion (£13.5bn) in the first half of 2022 compared with the same period last year but the firm warns it will not hit predicted yearly production targets, blaming rising energy costs and part shortages.

The company, which owns BMW, Mini, and Rolls-Royce, recorded a 65.9% uplift in pre-tax profits as it sold 1,160,094 models between 1 January and 31 July, down from 1,339,047 (a 13.4% fall) in the same period last year.

Broken down, there were 1,016,228 BMWs sold (down 13.7%) and 140,675 Minis (down 10.9%), but bucking the trend was Rolls-Royce, which saw a 6.8% increase in sales from 2989 to 3191.

However, the BMW Group warns that it has had to downgrade its production forecast for the rest of the year, with part shortages, rising energy costs and additional disruption caused by the ongoing war in Ukraine resulting in a reduced output of new cars.

This is a similar picture to other firms, with the Volkswagen Group also experiencing a drop in deliveries of 22.2% to 3.875 million units, but achieving pre-tax profits of €13.2bn (£11.0bn) - a 16.1% increase compared with the first half of 2021.

Positives for the BMW Group came in the form of electric car sales, with the group recording 184,468 electrified models (up 20.4%), which equated to a 15.8% share of total BMW Group sales, up from an 11.4% share in the same period last year.

For battery-electric cars, the group's sales more than doubled, with 75,890 being sold between 1 January and 30 June, up from 36,087 in the same period last year. Of those, 57,462 were BMWs (up 153.9%) and 18,428 Minis (up 37%).

However, sales of plug-in hybrids dipped, with 108,578 units sold, down 7.3% from the 117,156 total of the same period last year. The biggest fall in the group was Mini, which recorded just 7106 PHEV sales (down 31.2%), with BMW also seeing a drop but still selling 101,472 PHEV models (down 5.0%).