BMW diesel sales overtake petrol

Year-to-date sales have seen the Bavarian maker's diesel lineup rise to claim 51 per cent of sales for the year so far
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BMW has become the first passenger car brand in Australia to see diesel sales overtake petrol. October year-to-date charts see diesel product taking up 51 per cent of sales.

This places BMW far ahead of the overall market for the proportion of diesel to petrol sales. VFACTS figures for the same period show oilers account for 15.4 per cent of total passenger car sales. That represents considerable growth year on year -- up from 12.7 per cent for the same proportion of 2009.

Diesel has pipped petrol in the 1 Series hatch and outsold it by a sizeable margin throughout the X1, X3 and X5 SUV models. Total sales of the best-selling 3 Series skewed nearly two to one in favour of petrol, but the biggest selling individual 3 model is the oil-powered 320d, which has claimed nearly a third of 3 Series sales -- 1268 of a total 3989 sales. It came in with the second highest registration count across the diesel lineup.

But a breakdown of sales across the company's full range reveals it's in the volume selling X models that most of the diesel action is taking place. In the big-selling X5, the skew is in the order of four to one (2037 diesel/494 petrol). The X5 30d is the most popular of the company's diesel models.

In the X1, sales have skewed well over three to one in favour of diesel (1310/364), while in the X3 it tipped 30 to one (594/19). Oddly, given the shortfall in the X3's contribution to sales overall, the X3 xDrive20d has recorded the third highest registration count outright, accounting for around 90 per cent of X3 sales with 550 units.

Asked about the noticeable lag in X3 sales behind X5 and X1, BMW spokesman Piers Scott attributes it to growth in its market segment since the model was launched eight years ago. "There was no Q5 or XC60 when we launched it. But it's been a funny one, X3: 2009 was its strongest sales year in what's been a pretty lengthy lifecycle -- very unusual given the way sales normally peak in the first couple of years."

He added that 2010 sales weren't helped by running stock dry in preparation to launch the new model before year's end. "But it's been put back a few months."

Scott says the next generation X3, just launched, will come closer to bisecting the gap between the 3 Series Touring-based X1 and hefty X5, helping avoid cannibalisation of X1 sales.

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