A momentous year was had in 2010 by BMW M GmbH, the performance subsidiary of the German manufacturer. Not only did M car sales rise by 14.2 percent to 16,967 units, but worldwide demand for M Sport packages and BMW Individual special options also increased. This year it is anticipated that considerable growth will be achieved due to an extended M Sport range and the launching of the new BMW 1 Series M Coupé.
Even though the M5 and M6 models were being phased out over the past year, the recently introduced four-wheel drive X5 M and X6 M models compensated for the drop in sales, selling 2,778 and 3,082 units respectively. The BMW M3 remained the most popular of the M cars selling 9,666 units, comprising of 5,279 in coupé form, 2,544 convertibles and 1,843 saloons.
The USA showed itself to be far and away the largest M car market where sales rose by six percent to 6,281. In comparison, number two sales region, domestic market Germany, had sales of 1,716 cars. China is proving to be a significant up and coming purveyor of Munich's finest where sales rose by a massive 355 percent placing it fourth behind Britain and Northern Ireland.
The number of M Sport packages produced in 2010 rose by one percent, but interestingly, the top three sales markets reverse, with Britain and Northern Ireland coming first, Germany second and the USA third.