BMW is now outselling all its competitors in the luxury auto market amid a global microchip shortage that has forced most car companies to shut down production in recent months.
The car manufacturer's suppliers in South Carolina and San Luis Potosí, Mexico, are among the few not hit by the chip shortages which have forced many to temporarily halt manufacturing.
As a result, BMW sales have surged in the second quarter of 2021, overtaking Mercedes and Lexus, which both outsold the German brand earlier this year, and vastly outselling Audi.
Bernhard Kuhnt, CEO of BMW's North American business, told Bloomberg that they sold 96,561 vehicles between April and June - 35 per cent more than its 71,433 cars sold in the first quarter of 2021.
In the second quarter, it sold 14,171 more units than Mercedes-Benz, 13,101 more units than Lexus and 29,566 more than Audi.
BMW has pulled ahead in the race of luxury car sales, taking a vast lead against its competitors despite a global microchip shortage
BMW shares have also climbed steadily over the past year and were recorded at $34 on Tuesday as compared to roughly $22 this time last year
BMW shares have also climbed steadily over the past year and were recorded at $34 on Tuesday as compared to roughly $22 this time last year. Share prices stagnated around $28 and $30 in the first quarter of 2021 before surging again and peaking at roughly $39 a share on June 7.
Other auto makers have been forced to cut production of more than 1.2 million vehicles in North America because of a perfect storm of issues affecting a mega-factory in Taiwan, where 80 percent of the world's computer chips are produced.
Cars have become increasingly dependent on semiconductor microchips for everything from computer management of engines for better fuel economy to driver-assistance features such as emergency braking.
The worldwide shortage resulted from US-China trade tensions and supply disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. As if that wasn't enough, the weather is also against many chip-makers. The manufacturing process requires lots of water. TSMC makes chips for dozens of companies and churns through 156,000 tons of water a day normally. But there are serious droughts in Taiwan at the moment, reservoirs are drying up and the firm is now bringing water to the factory in trucks.
The car manufacturer's suppliers in South Carolina and San Luis Potosí, Mexico, are among the few not hit by the chip shortages which have forced many to temporarily halt manufacturing. Workers perform final inspections at the BMW Manufacturing Co. assembly plant in Greer, South Carolina, U.S. on May 10, 2018
Employees worked on the body of a BMW 3 Series car during a media tour of BMW's plant in San Luis Potosi, Mexico
However, BMW managed to skirt the shortage because it doesn't rely on chips from Taiwan and is reputed for having strong relations with its supplies in South Carolina and Mexico, according to reporting from Reuters.
'Although production is limited or less, it doesn't stop like some of these other brands,' said Marc Cohen, vice president for Priority 1 Automotive Group in Towson, Maryland. Since inventory is limited, customers who now receive their cars ordered them two months ago, he said.
Aside from temporary shutdowns of MINI production in the United Kingdom and at a plant in Germany, the carmaker has not been affected.
'We cannot assume that we will emerge from the second quarter unscathed,' Chief Executive Officer Oliver Zipse told Reuters in May. He added, however, that he did not expect the shortage to have a major impact on production and the company would respond by prioritizing production of cars with higher profit margins.
Production stagnated at various sites, either on a daily basis or individual shifts, Milan Nedeljkovic, BMW board member in
