BMW and Mercedes-Benz continue to fight for sales dominance in the premium market. But which of these Teutonic rivals is leading the global race after the 1st half of 2024?
With the opening half of 2024 behind us, it’s time to see which German automaker is leading the premium sales race. So, let’s take a closer look at the latest global sales figures from BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
In H1 2024, the BMW Group – which, as a reminder, comprises the BMW, Mini, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad brands – reported a worldwide sales figure of 1 213 359 units. For the record, that represents a 0.1% year-on-year decline.
Meanwhile, the Mercedes-Benz Group (which includes the Mercedes-Benz brand and the Smart marque as well as Mercedes-Benz Vans) ended the same 6-month reporting period on 1 168 600 units, down 6% year on year. By our maths, that puts the Stuttgart-based group some 44 759 units behind its Munich-based rival, with the latter thus claiming to have “outperformed its traditional competitors” yet again.
What happens if we compare only the 2 core brands? Well, the BMW marque finished the 1st half of 2024 on 1 096 486 units (a year-on-year increase of 2.3%), while the Mercedes-Benz Cars brand came in at 959 700 units (a year-on-year fall of 6%). It’s also worth noting the latter figure seemingly includes Smart sales, which Mercedes has opted not to list separately.
And the battle in the all-electric premium sector? Well, the BMW Group says it registered 190 622 units in the fully electric segment in H1 2024 (179 557 of which came from the BMW brand), a year-on-year improvement of 24.6%. The Mercedes-Benz Group’s total EV, meanwhile, dipped 16% year on year to 101 600 units.
The BMW M division grew its sales 5.1% year on year to finish the opening half of 2024 on 99 517 registrations (note this includes not only full-fat M products but also M Performance models). Unfortunately, Mercedes-Benz no longer makes an AMG-specific figure available, instead listing a sales total for “top-end” models (comprising Mercedes-AMG, Mercedes-Maybach, G-Class, S-Class, GLS, EQS and EQS SUV registrations). The latter number dropped 22% year on year to 136 900 units.
For the record, the Mini brand contributed 114 054 units (down 18.7%, year on year) to the BMW Group’s overall total, while Rolls-Royce added 2 819 registrations (down 11.4%, compared with H1 2023) and BMW Motorrad a considerable 113 072 units (up 0.2%, year on year). Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz Vans accounted for 208 900 units of its Group’s H1 2024 tally, down 4% year on year.
In South Africa, it’s unfortunately not exactly clear how each firm performed in the 1st half of the year, since BMW reports sales figures for only every 3rd month and Mercedes-Benz doesn’t share registrations with Naamsa at all (though the industry representative body supplies “estimates” each month)…
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