BMW sold 5,550 units in Korea last month, beating Mercedes-Benz (3405 units), ranking first in imported cars (32% share).
Mercedes, which has been leading the domestic import car sales for six years last year. However, BMW has often topped monthly sales since last year.
In October last year, BMW topped the monthly sales by about 1,200 units, beating Benz in a year and two months. In November, he beat Mercedes one after another. Thanks to this pursuit, the annual sales gap is also narrowing. Benz sold 76,152 units and BMW 65,669 units last year. The sales gap between the two companies is about 10,000 units, which is only half of the gap (20,000 units) in 2018.
What is the secret to BMW’s recapture of No. 1 monthly sales? The industry analyzes that this is the result of differences in strategies between the two companies in response to the semiconductor crisis. As semiconductors have recently become scarce, BMW is releasing a large number of so-called “minus option” cars, excluding some electronic functions. In some cases, basic specifications such as the touch function of the central screen are excluded with the strategy of “forwarding price over option.”
On the other hand, Mercedes is choosing a “quality over quantity” strategy. At the end of last year, Chairman Ola Kalenius Benz announced a strategy to “release a highly profitable luxury model first.” In fact, the results of this strategy are revealed by BMW and Benz’s global performance last year. BMW sold 2.21 million units last year, up 9.1% year-on-year, beating Mercedes-Benz (2.05 million units), down 5%. An official from the automobile industry said, “Benz has also been affected by suspending shipments since last month to check the quality of some gasoline models such as C and E classes.”