Shock, Horror: U.S. BMW X4 Sales Are Rising Higher

It’s only been on sale ten months. But those who hoped BMW wouldn’t be able to repeat the X6’s moderate levels of success will be disappointed to hear the BMW X4 just recorded its best U.S. sales month so far. 920 copies of the X4 were sold in April 2015,

April’s total was 89% better than the average monthly total from the first-quarter of this year. Moreover, April’s X4 U.S. sales total was 54% better than the total from the prior month, when the U.S. new vehicle market was 6% larger. Indeed, the X4’s April total of 920 units was 12% greater than the total achieved by BMW USA in December of last year, December being the month for luxury auto sales in America.

Just days after TTAC’s managing editor mentioned the rate at which Porsche Macans are flying out of showrooms – not that the Macan is the highest-volume vehicle by any means, not even among Porsches – the realization that X4 sales are rising higher makes a measure of sense. True, the X4 is not the shockingly effective all-arounder that the Macan is. But in 2015, as a general rule, auto consumers love SUVs (and the various spin-off names of the SUV class: crossovers, CUVs, utilities, tall wagons.) Added to that, auto consumers love luxury branded vehicles. Auto consumers also love BMWs; after all, BMW was America’s best-selling premium auto brand in 2014 and only trails Mercedes-Benz by a hair through the first-third of 2014.

But the X4? Is it simply selling more often now than when it first originated because Americans love SUVs, especially luxury SUVs, and especially BMWs?

Like the X6 and the discontinued Acura ZDX, the X4 is a more costly, less flexible version of a more mainstream luxury utility vehicle. In the X6’s case, the donor vehicle was the X5. The ZDX was the second-gen MDX’s offspring. The X4 is a more costly, less flexible version of the BMW X3. And one might have naturally assumed that in stark contrast to the less-is-more formula that works for so many a special edition Porsche sports car, the less-style-equals-more-ugly conundrum of the X4 would see the BMW suffering the ZDX’s fate.

Yet nearly one year into its tenure, the BMW X4 is selling better than at any point in the model’s brief history.

And in April, the X4 sold 59% more frequently than the Acura ZDX did in its best-ever month.

2010 Acura ZDX

Lovers of taste can be grateful, however, as the increasingly popular X4 is still really not all that popular. Only one out of every ten BMW SAV sales in April involved an X4. (Only one in five involved the more expensive X6.)

BMW’s more conventional X1, X3, and X5 combined for a 19% year-over-year loss in April and are down 25% year-to-date in an SUV/CUV market that was up 15% in April and 13% year-to-date. The addition of the X4 and improved X6 sales don’t alter the fact that BMW utility vehicle sales are still down this year: 6% in April; 17% year-to-date. More specifically, the X3’s decline (32% in April; 40% YTD) hasn’t been completely made up for by the X4, either. Meeting global demand for luxury SUVs isn’t an easy task at the moment, as the United States isn’t the only market with a hankering for vehicles like the X3, which is in short supply.

2016 Mercedes-Benz GLE Coupe

Regardless, with the X4’s moderate level of success, don’t be surprised if automakers delve deeper into this bizarre niche. Indeed, we’ve already seen that the next M-Class (to be called the GLE) will offer a so-called coupe version; an X6 fighter. Let’s just hope they find a way to make them all a little prettier.

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures. Follow on Twitter @goodcarbadcar and Facebook.