Speaking to CarAdvice at the launch of the new BMW M2 at Targa Tasmania this week, BMW Australia CEO Mark Werner said the new M2 will “substantially grow” the M brand in Australia where wait times for the new sporty coupe are already pushing towards the end of the year. The new M2 has volume restriction of around 300 units for 2016 in Australia. Last year, BMW sold just over 1000 M cars in Australia, a record for the brand.
“The BMW M2 will certainly help us to be present in a segment where previously we did not have a pure M offer, if you take aside the M performance vehicle, so the M2 will certainly help us to conquer new customers on one side and also help us on other side to substantially grow our BMW M volume,” Werner said.
Due to the limited supply of the M2, the sales of the M3 Sedan and M4 Coupe are still expected to exceed those of the compact coupe.
“We think the M3 and M4 combined will still be our biggest selling M models,” product and market planning head, Shawn Ticehurst told CarAdvice.
“This one [the M2] is restricted to a degree with supply. We know this year we are still pushing to get more than 300 units, we know there is more market potential for it, but the whole world wants more M2s at the moment… We are constantly asking Munich for more cars.”
With wait times pushing 6 months or more, BMW Australia sees a lot of customers moving up in the M lineup to an M3 or M4.
“What we are finding at the moment because of the wait time of the M2, some customers are going up to an M3 or M4 because they want a car sooner,” Ticehurst said. BMW Australia says the majority are new to the M brand.
The new BMW M2 is already being reported as sold out in many markets for the 2016 production. In Europe, some customer reports indicate that current orders are now looking to be fulfilled in 2017. The demand for the M2 is high – and that’s a good sign – confirming the attractiveness of this compact sports car in the market. Reports say that the M2 is currently being produced daily in low double-digit numbers at the BMW plant in in Leipzig – far too little for the high demand around the world which triggers some delivery delays.
