Dubai: The luxury carmakers cannot get a tread wrong in the Middle East — BMW and Audi announced record-setting 2013 numbers on Wednesday and Jaguar Land Rover is expected to follow suit. Rolls-Royce confirmed late last week that growth from the region — 20 per cent — was the highest from all its global territories.
The UAE accounted for 46 per cent of the 24,596 units sold by BMW and its Mini marque in these markets last year, with volumes in Abu Dhabi up 15 per cent and Dubai’s by 10 per cent. These are quite some distance removed from the second-placed Saudi Arabia’s full-year tally of 4,228 units.
“Saudi Arabia has historically been our second biggest market after the UAE and remains a key market for BMW AG for several reasons,” said Dr Joerg Breuer, managing director for BMW Group M. E. (Breuer will shortly take over a new role at the corporate headquarters, with Johannes Seibert taking over in the regional role). “One of them being that it’s the biggest market in the Middle East and the third biggest worldwide for 7 Series sales.” Audi, on a roll globally, repeated the act in the Middle East, seeing 10,647 cars leaving the showrooms from a 16 per cent plus year-on-year growth. The UAE was also Audi’s leading market, with growth percentage double that of the overall region and totalling 4,458 units.
Now that the 10,000 units a year mark is behind it, Audi’s next big number on the horizon is to have 20,000 by 2020.“We intend to continue our focus on capacity planning in 2014 in addition to seeking growth,” said Trevor Hill, managing director at Audi M. E., said in a statement. “Almost every dealer in the region is investing in new facilities, in line with the company’s strategy of sustainable growth.”
Lucky number 7
Porsche was another manufacturer to rev up with upbeat 2013 numbers yesterday (January 15). While the regional break-up is awaited, the Asia-Pacific (excluding China), Middle East and Africa contributed 61,534 units out of 162,149 cars sold worldwide.
For BMW and Audi, the number “7” proved particularly winsome in the region. BMW’s flagship 7 Series — helped on by launch of the current generation version — was the bestseller within the wider line-up, and accounted for 4,815 units.
At Audi, it was the top-of-the line Q7 that still continued to be a firm favourite, with 2,183 units sold. Customers will have to wait another year and more before the next-generation makes it to the showrooms. For those buyers wanting that extra top-up on styling and tuning, special packages have been introduced for the Q7 — the Q line and the Sport Style package. (The entry-level into the Q series, the Q1, is looking at a 2016 launch.
Even otherwise, there is plenty to keep regional buyers interested this year. BMW’s hybrid high-performance sportscar i8 — priced $135,000 in the US — is headed for a May introduction in the region; though a niche entrant, it will offer a new kind of gravitas for the manufacturer. “It’s the big one for us in the short-term, we haven’t yet issued an official pricing but it will be around Dh700,000,” said a spokesperson.
