BMW drives profits sharply higher in Q1

German luxury carmaker BMW said on Friday that earnings rose sharply in the first three months of the current year, driven by a rebound in sales as the market recovers from the coronavirus pandemic. BMW said in a statement that its bottom-line net profit quadrupled to €2.8 billion in the period from January to March, from €574 million a year earlier. First-quarter revenues were up 15 per cent at €26.8 billion as unit sales grew by 33 per cent to 636,606, the carmaker said. “Compared to the previous year’s pandemic-affected first-quarter performance, key financial figures developed positively in the first three months of the financial year 2021,” the statement said. “The significant recovery of the markets, which began in mid-2020, continued to gain momentum during the first three months of the year.” BMW said that the “greatly improved level of revenues and earnings was driven by a combination of higher sales volume figures across all regions of the world, particularly in China, and improved selling prices.” Looking ahead, the carmaker cautioned that the coronavirus pandemic “will continue to influence the course of business for the BMW group throughout the current financial...