US: BMW i3 Sales Down 70% In 2020

Weakening demand, probably combined with prioritization of Europe, seems to be the cause.

By: Mark Kane

Jan 20, 2021 at 12:28pm ET

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BMW Group (BMW and MINI) does not report its plug-in electric car sales in the U.S. anymore (like most of the manufacturers, unfortunately) so we don't know how its lineup (of mostly PHEVs) cope.

The only thing that we do know is the results from two of the early BMW plug-ins, which can't be easily buried into the statistic, because of their unique names: i3 and i8.

The numbers are significantly down compared to 2019, as the i8 is no longer produced, while the i3 probably was prioritized for Europe (to meet CO2 requirements).

i3: 640 in Q4 (down 52% year-over-year) and 1,508 YTD (down 70%)
i8: 28 in Q4 (down 85% year-over-year) and 191 YTD (down 83%)

BMW i3 sales in the U.S. - Q4 2020

Overall, the BMW Group sales in the U.S. went down by 18% year-over-year to 306,870.

The company is not rushing to introduce the all-electric BMW iX3, so the electrification relies only on PHEVs: 330e, 330e xDrive, 530e, 530e xDrive, 745e xDrive, X3 xDrive30e, X5 xDrive45e, Cooper S E Countryman ALL4 and two BEVs: i3 and MINI Cooper SE.

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Detailed BMW sales results - Q4 2020