Berlin (Reuters) - The Munich-based car manufacturer BMW has delivered more cars to customers in 2023 than ever before.

Sales of BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce brand vehicles increased by 6.5 percent to just under 2.6 million, the company announced on Tuesday. The BMW brand alone sold almost 2.3 million cars, 7.3 percent more than a year ago. It thus defended its leading position in the global premium segment, it said. High-priced vehicles such as the 7 Series and the X7 performed particularly well. However, demand for electric cars was also strong. BMW Sales Director Jochen Goller referred to new models that had accelerated the ramp-up in electromobility.

In total, the Munich-based company sold 376,183 electric cars worldwide, which is 15 percent of total sales. For the current year, BMW has set itself the goal of increasing this share to a fifth. "We continue to see high demand for our all-electric products and, based on our strong, cross-brand product portfolio, we are aiming to sell more than half a million all-electric vehicles by 2024," said Goller.

The European market, where BMW sold 7.5 percent more vehicles, and the USA, where sales increased by 9.4 percent, performed particularly well last year. The most important single market, China, lagged behind with an increase of 4.2 percent to 824,932 cars. A price war for electric cars raged in the People's Republic in 2023, particularly in the affordable entry-level segment.

(Report by Christina Amann. Edited by Olaf Brenner. If you have any queries, please contact our editorial team at Berlin.Newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or Frankfurt.Newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets)