It’s no secret that the automotive industry is undergoing a drastic change. Consumer habits are changing and sales are expected to start dropping over the next 5 to 10 years. Even today most car makers are struggling to post small sales increases across the board. BMW managed to post record-breaking figures for the last 10 years consecutively, but even for the Bavarian manufacturer, that’s getting harder and harder to do.
Yet, BMW is making changes to the way it issues their sales reports. The company announced this week that it will be switching from monthly to quarterly sales reporting. According to BMW, the change will be taking place immediately and will cover not just the BMW brand but MINI as well. This means we’ll get to see the first sales figures in April.
“BMW Group remains focused on profitable growth,” a BMW of North America spokesman said for Automotive News. “To further emphasize our focus on profitability, BMW Group has made the decision to report all sales and financial figures in alignment across all brands and regions on a quarterly basis, beginning in this financial year. The decision to move from monthly to quarterly sales reporting was made on the Group level and affects all brands and sales entities around the globe. The decision is being announced now to coincide with the new financial year,” he added.
BMW isn’t the only car maker to make this switch this year. Nissan and Porsche announced similar approaches. “Monthly sales figures rarely capture the overall picture of how our business is developing,” Porsche Cars North America CEO Klaus Zellmer said in a statement last week. Mercedes-Benz, on the other hand, announced it has no intention of changing the way they report sales, at least for the moment.
