BMW Group Thailand has a positive outlook for 2018 after the local unit set sales records for cars and motorcycles last year.
Teuchert: All targets achieved in 2017
The German luxury carmaker yesterday announced its first-ever five-digit sales figures for BMW and Mini cars with 11,030 vehicles in 2017, up 39% year-on-year.
Some 10,020 BMW cars were delivered to Thai customers, a robust 43% increase from the previous year.
These milestones made for the most successful 12-month period for BMW cars in Thailand, which posted the highest growth rate across BMW's global network.
Mini cars in Thailand rose by a healthy 11% year-on-year to reach 1,010 deliveries for 2017.
BMW Motorrad, the big-bike brand, had its sixth straight year of double-digit growth with 2,001 motorcycles delivered in 2017, up 10% from the previous year.
President Stefan Teuchert said the company once again achieved targets across the three brands of BMW, Mini and BMW Motorrad.
Moreover, the company saw remarkable success with plug-in hybrid vehicle sales rising by 269% year-on-year.
"It is a trend that we expect to continue in the foreseeable future, thanks to consistently increasing demand for new-generation cars," Mr Teuchert said.
On the global level, BMW Group recorded the best-ever annual sales for a seventh year in succession in 2017, increasing sales by 4.1% to 2,463,526 vehicles.
This success was spread throughout BMW and Mini brands, achieving new all-time high figures with 2,088,283 BMW vehicles delivered, up 4.2% year-on-year, and 371,881 Minis sold, up 3.2%.
BMW Motorrad achieved a seventh all-time sales high in succession in 2017 with a total of 164,153 BMW motorcycles delivered worldwide, an increase of 13.2% year-on-year.
Mr Teuchert said the group delivered more than 100,000 electrified vehicles from the BMW i and BMW iPerformance range worldwide in the past calendar year.
"It was another proof that our forward-looking technology is the right direction for motorists around the globe," he said. "In Thailand, we intend to make plug-in hybrid vehicles more accessible to Thai motorists, supporting a launch of ChargeNow, the world's largest network of public charging stations for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles."