BMW boss upbeat on global sales

HELMUT Panke, chief executive of BMW, says the company will be selling 70m vehicles a year by 2010, up from just more than 60m this year.

Future growth in Europe and the US will be driven by consumers adding a second and third car. New markets, such as China are also creating opportunities in the industry, Panke told an audience in Detroit.

He pointed out that in the US, there are about 900 vehicles for every 1,000 people. In Europe there are fewer than 500 vehicles per 1,000 people, and in China fewer than 10 vehicles per 1,000 people.

'The difference between the US and the rest of the world means that there is considerable market potential for our industry,' he said.

Together with its Mini and Rolls-Royce brands, BMW is the biggest European carmaker in the US. However, it still has only 1.7% of the market, compared with leader Toyota's 12.1%.

Panke said the company plans to have a 2% market share within five years, and it is introducing two new vehicles this autumn - the Mini convertible and the small-car BMW 1-Series.

Its sales growth in the US is being helped by demand for sport utility vehicles. For the first seven months of 2004, BMW sold 147,313 vehicles in the United States, a 4% increase on 2003.

'We've been able to continually build our presence in this market to the point that last year, the US became our biggest single market for the first time in our history.

'As things stand, it looks as if it will remain so this year,' Panke told car industry journalists.