BMW sees sales growing by one-third in five years

DETROIT, Aug 5 Reuters reports that BMW plans to increase worldwide sales by nearly a third to more than 1.3 million vehicles within five years from over 1 million this year, the German automaker's Chairman Helmut Panke said on Monday.

With the company's worldwide vehicle sales up 18 percent this year, Panke predicted revenues and profits would exceed last year's levels when car and truck sales hit record highs.

Fueling expected growth over the next five years will be the rollout of several new products, including the X3 sport utility vehicle and the 1 Series and 6 Series cars, plus expansion of the Mini brand.

Panke said demand for the X5 far exceeds annual capacity of about 80,000, and the company will expand the Spartanburg, South Carolina, plant where the sport utility vehicle is made.

BMW has already said it will expand capacity at Spartanburg, which will also make the forthcoming Z4 sports coupe out this fall, to 150,000 next year from 120,000 now.

"There's room to grow and we will grow," Panke told reporters at a Detroit Automotive Press Association luncheon. "Spartanburg will continue to grow. The latest round of capital investment will not be the last one."

Buyers in Europe are waiting a couple of months for the X5, and the lineup in Asia is six to eight months, Panke said.

"People are lining up and people are having to wait for the X5. I can see more than 80,000 (in sales)," he said.

Panke declined to say if BMW would build the X3, a smaller version of the X5, in Spartanburg. BMW contracted Canadian automotive parts supplier Magna International Inc. (Toronto:MGa.TO - News) to build the X3, with production scheduled to start in 2004 at its Magna Steyr plant in Graz, Austria.

Panke said that, despite slumping stock markets, he remains optimistic about U.S. sales. Real estate prices have held up, and that, he said, is a key factor for premium vehicle sales, more so than stock prices.

On Thursday, BMW is expected to post stronger second quarter earnings, according to a Reuters poll of 16 analysts.