BMW Group Malaysia sold 8,400 cars in 2021 – retains No. 1 position in premium segment



BMW Group Malaysia has just announced its sales performance for 2021, with a total of 10,500 units delivered across its BMW, MINI, and BMW Motorrad brands. While the figure is a slight decrease from 2020’s 11,016 units, the company says that it has again taken the lead in the premium automotive segment here in Malaysia, for the second year in a row.

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Among the figure, the BMW brand accounted for 8,400 units or 80% of the total, which the company says translates to a 47% market share in the premium segment. That number, however, is roughly 5.6% lower than the 8,903 units it sold in 2020.

BMW’s sales figure here in Malaysia is made up primarily by the G20 3 Series, with over 2,400 deliveries last year, led by the 320i Sport variant. This is followed by the 2 Series Grand Coupe, which overtook the 5 Series for the first-time ever with 1,270 units sold.

The 5-er meanwhile, now the brand’s third best-selling model in its Malaysian line-up, sold a total of 1,150 units in 2021 with the 530i M Sport being the most popular model. All three of the brand’s best-selling models are locally-assembled here in Malaysia.

As for the SUVs, the BMW X Series range saw a combined total of “over 3,200 deliveries” in 2021, again led by the X1 with 960 units sold, followed by the X5 with 850 units – the latter a 22% increase over the previous year.

On the side of MINI, the company delivered a total of 940 units (+5.6% over 2020) to put the brand in third place within the premium segment. As with the previous years, the Countryman was again the most popular model, making up over 68% of all MINI deliveries.

On the macro scale, BMW Group Malaysia says that over 16% (approx. 1,680 units) of the total 10,500 units delivered in 2021 were electrified models, bringing the total number of electrified BMW and MINI vehicles in the country to just over 21,600 units.

Crucially, MINI saw a significant increase in uptake for its electrified models, with over 16% of its 940 deliveries being made up by the hybrid and fully-electric models, compared to just 7% in 2020.

In addition to sales performance, BMW Group Malaysia also achieved a net promotor scores of 93 and 94 for the BMW and MINI brands respectively for Malaysia, the second-highest rankings in the world in terms of customer satisfaction for the BMW Group.

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BMW Group Malaysia Managing Director, Hans de Visser said, “Our achievements in 2021 are strongly attributed to the unwavering support of our loyal customers in Malaysia, our dedicated network of dealers, as well as our employees who produced nothing short of exceptional work and achievement, despite the economic and social challenges posed to many industries especially our due to the pandemic last year. I would like to take a moment to say thank you and congratulations for this amazing achievement.

“Leveraging on the lessons learned as an organisation from the first pandemic year, we navigated the second year with strategies in place to tackle economic slowdowns in the industry, and we successfully introduced 37 model variants across the BMW, MINI and BMW Motorrad portfolio despite repeated lockdowns.

“2021 was also the year of our electrification-offensive, for us as well as the BMW Group worldwide, and with the amazing response we have received in Malaysia for the all-new BMW i models, we are confident that the Electric Future we envision for Malaysia will soon become reality. We are ready for it and so is Malaysia as we now steer and drive into 2022 fully electrified,” de Visser added.

On the financial side of things, BMW Group Financial Services Malaysia reported that it has successfully financed over 5,500 vehicles across the BMW Group portfolio in 2021, or just over 50% of all BMW, MINI, and BMW Motorrad vehicles delivered last year. Among that, eight out of 10 contracts have been funded digitally via the company’s BMW Engage online financing application.

In 2022, the company is looking forward to the milestone of its 100,000th vehicle assembled at the Kulim assembly plant. The company has also reaffirmed its commitment towards electrification, which can be seen with the introduction of the electrified BMW X3 xDrive30e M Sport variant earlier this month. The company has also officially unveiled the BMW iX and iX3 fully-electric models in Malaysia last year, with the i4 set to join the stable shortly.

The company will also be expanding its charging network across the country this year, particularly the addition of more DC fast charger locations, covering not just the Greater Klang Valley but also the northern and southern regions as well.

As of January 2022, there are 77 BMW i Charging facilities across the country, with 25 facilities powered by partnerships with local dealers and industry players. The network is further complemented by the 16 charging points with Shell Recharge & Park Easy, as well as 319 charging facilities with GreenTech Malaysia and its ChargEV platform.

At a more operational level within the organisation, BMW Group Malaysia is also pivoting their traditional business models towards one more focused on sustainability and environment. For example, the company introduced the RE:GENERATE programme last year to repurpose waste and by-products from its business processes.

This was carried out with strategic partnerships and initiatives with local innovators and industry players such as Precious Plastic Malaysia, EV Connection, and Pentas Flora to develop innovative solutions to address and repurpose plastic, EV batteries as well as automotive lubricant and solvent waste from its business process value chain.

“We are going beyond delivering premium vehicles that are the Ultimate Driving Machines, but vehicles that are ultimately responsible for the planet and our future generations. We recognise that the time has come for a shared vision for electrified mobility with a shared responsibility by all stakeholders to act and transform our industries into a responsible ecosystem that is built for the future,” said de Visser.

“For us at BMW Group Malaysia, this is an ecosystem where Future Mobility can truly thrive in. This is the future we envision and with the support of our customers, dealers, associates and the Malaysian government here – we are more than optimistic that this Electric Future will be a successful one.”