Audi’s A3 compact and Mercedes-Benz’s S-class flagship helped the two German automakers narrow their sales gaps with global luxury-car leader BMW in the first half.
Six-month auto sales by BMW’s namesake brand exceeded Audi’s deliveries by 16,997 vehicles compared with a difference of 23,760 a year earlier, according to figures released by the manufacturers this week. BMW’s lead against Mercedes shrank 6 percent to 102,827 cars.
Porsche reported an almost 8% increase in sales during the first half of 2014 to 87,800 units. In the first six months, the new Panamera Gran Turismo was especially in demand with around 13,500 units were delivered—a rise of 28%. Also, almost one in ten customers opted for the Panamera S-E plug-in hybrid model.
By GREGORY KATZ and MATTHEW KNIGHT
They are rolling symbols of wealth and excess, starting at $263,000 a pop, with many buyers choosing custom options that can easily double the price. And they are more popular than ever before.
Infiniti named longtime BMW executive Gaby-Luise Wuest as its head of global operations, succeeding Francois Goupil de Bouille, whom Infiniti appointed as head of Europe, Middle East and Africa, earlier this year.
The BMW Group sold more than a million vehicles in the first half of 2014 for the first time. A total of 1,020,211 vehicles were delivered to customers worldwide, an increase of 6.9% over the same period last year (954,501).
