German car manufacturer BMW is making its presence felt in the electric vehicle market, posting impressive sales figures from 2024 so far.
In a company statement, BMW Group said its battery electric vehicle sales up until the end of the year's third quarter had hit 294,054, representing a 19.1% increase compared to the same timeframe in 2023.
Among the success stories was the electric Mini, with the model boosting its sales figures by 54.3% in Q3, with over 16,000 making their way to customers.
"Our fully electric vehicles are winning over customers worldwide — as shown by the significant double-digit growth in our BEV sales during the first nine months of the year," said Jochen Goller, who is responsible for customer, brands, and sales at BMW and a member of the board of management of BMW AG.
Despite what the brand described as "challenging conditions" in the market, BMW is proving that there remains an appetite for electric vehicles, with people turning away from dirty-fuel-powered models in favor of cars that produce no tailpipe pollution and are generally powered with at least solid percentages of cleaner energy from the grid or rooftop solar.
That's no surprise, with electric vehicles proving to be much cheaper to refuel compared to cars powered by internal combustion engines. Since EVs have far fewer moving parts than ICEs, they also require a lot less maintenance, offering another money-saving perk.
According to Cox Automotive's Kelley Blue Book, EVs made up 15.8% of BMW's brand sales in the United States in Q3 and 13.6% of Mini's. In general, EV sales in the country grew 11% year on year in the third quarter, while record highs were reached in both sales volume (346,309) and market share (8.9%).
In July, Jato Dynamics even found that BMW surpassed Tesla sales in Europe for the first time, according to Electrek, also lapping rival Mercedes-Benz in Q3 overall.
Customers seem impressed, too.
One comment on Electrek's report of BMW's sales success read: "We got an i4 M50 this year after previously owning a PHEV X5 for 5 years — it's the best car we've ever driven."
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"BMW has been working hard to get into the EV market and it's paying off," another reader added.
Despite EV growth slowing year-on-year, director of industry insights at Cox Automotive Stephanie Valdez Streaty said sales in the U.S. continue to "march higher."
"The growth is being fueled in part by Incentives and discounts; but as more affordable EVs enter the market and infrastructure improves, we can expect even greater adoption in the coming years," Valdez Streaty noted.
Those incentives include the Inflation Reduction Act, which allows prospective vehicle buyers to access up to $7,500 in tax credits for the purchase of a new, qualifying EV and up to $4,000 for a used one.
Even when considering the criticism levied towards the technology, there has still never been a better time to buy an EV. While we still need to mine for 30 million tons of minerals a year by 2040 to reach the International Energy Agency's requirements for clean energy transitions — such as those needed for EV battery construction — that's a drop in the ocean compared to the 16-plus billion tons of oil, coal, and natural gas we mine every year.
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