BMW Shifts Units From Europe To U.S.

Derek Kreindler
by Derek Kreindler

Europe’s auto market implosion has led BMW to shift units earmarked for the continent over to the United States and China, where demand remains strong.

BMW Sales Chief Ian Robertson told Bloomberg that a recovery in Europe could take years, and that Europe’s crisis was having effects in other regions. “The slowdown in China is part of what’s happening in Europe,” Robertson said.

BMW’s global sales were up 14 percent in September, buoyed by the introduction of the new 3-Series. But the company must take measures to stop the bleeding in Europe, with Robertson remarking that a restructuring of its Spanish dealer network is under consideration.

Derek Kreindler
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  • Krhodes1 Krhodes1 on Oct 18, 2012

    Folks seem to be misinterpretting this post. BMW is not going to try to send non-US market cars here, they are simply going to build more cars for the US. BMW is almost entirely a Build-to-Order operation, whether that order comes from an end customer, a dealer, or the official importer in some country makes no difference. In the past, they have had a certain number of production slots allocated to US models, now there are going to be more. I don't think this is going to result in "channel stuffing", but I am sure there will be incentives for dealers to hold more stock in inventory. With BMWs push for BTO, the smaller dealers in particular carry very few cars. My local dealer might have 20 or so, across all of BMWs lines. One thing I do know is that part of the reason sales of the 3-series have been flat is simply that the dealers have not been able to get them. Production has not kept pace with demand, and one of the local club chapter guys is having to wait 4 months for his BTO car. This in contrast to last year when the wait time was 6-8 weeks. BMW does NOT have an overcapacity problem, so no plant closings or layoffs seem likely. Or much in the way of customer incentives on the new cars.

    • See 2 previous
    • Krhodes1 Krhodes1 on Oct 18, 2012

      @corntrollio To some extent, BMW has limited options more in the new 3-series than in the old one. There are a few things that you could get as stand-alone options that are only in packages now. And there are certain things you can only get on the upper models. One thing they are doing that I have to think is hurting them is limiting color and interior trim options to the various "style lines". But they are still more flexible with options than the Japanese makes, by far. Some complain about the cost as you pile on the options, but I prefer the flexibility to NOT get things that I don't want. I ordered my car equipped exactly the way I wanted it, there is nothing that I did not want, and nothing that I wish I had ordered. I do admit though, that if I had been able to order from the European options list, I would have spent more money and gotten more stuff. In particular, I would have bought the sport seats, which I wanted. But in the US you can only get them with the sport package, which included a stiffer suspension and staggered sized wheels that I did not want. There was probably another $2500 in toys that the Europeans can order from the factory that we can't, I added most of them to my car through aftermarket vendors. Too bad, so sad for BMW to miss out on another few thousand in revenue due to their own inflexibility. Note that all of these things are bits that either used to be sold here, or would not make a difference for Federalization. Seatback storage nets, for example.

  • Da Coyote Da Coyote on Oct 18, 2012

    Off the subject, but your car pic popups now have a "play" button far to close to the "X" (get this crap outta my car pic) button. At least on my browser, I cannot get rid of the add without playing it. Not good. Please think of getting rid of that part. I know you've gotta make money, but that's a bit beyond the pale.

  • Geekcarlover Geekcarlover on Oct 18, 2012

    For a moment I was looking forward to reading some European blogger complaining that BMW is good, but the damn Americans get the really great models.

  • CJinSD CJinSD on Oct 19, 2012

    If anything, this sounds like a threat to Spartanburg. The US is a mature market for BMW to say the least. They're not experiencing growth here. It they're planning on stepping up US volume from Germany, it will have to come out of other BMW factories' production.

    • Sunridge place Sunridge place on Oct 20, 2012

      CJ...do you really think that BMW builds 3/5/7 series cars in the US? You should look into what they build at Spartanburg. Am I wrong in assuming the SC plant only builds crossovers?

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