By all counts, 2017 was a very good year for premium cars. Particularly so for BMW, who recently claimed the title of best-selling luxury automaker over arch-rival Mercedes-Benz. BMW’s total sales for 2017 topped 2.46 million cars, compared to Mercedes-Benz’s 2.29 million. However, it’s only fair to note that those totals refer to everything under the BMW corporate umbrella; which includes Rolls Royce and Mini. The BMW brand alone sold 2.1 million cars—a 4.2 percent sales increase for the German automaker.
The explosive sales growth of premium cars for the last seven consecutive years is largely driven by double-digit growth in China, where BMW and Mini sales have increased by 15.1 percent. More than 70 percent of the luxury vehicles sold in China last year were German-made—the favourite being Audi, followed by BMW, and then Mercedes-Benz.