BMW, Mercedes Or Audi: This German Premium Brand Sells The Most EVs

No matter how many people complain about the design of modern BMWs, the Munich brand is simply doing well. With a total of 2,554,183 cars sold in 2023, BMW can once again call itself the largest premium brand, even if we were not limited to the ‘German three’. A brand like Lexus is doing very well in North America, but with a total of 824,258 registrations worldwide, it lags far behind BMW, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz.

All figures are based on the entire group, including brands that fall under the same business unit or company. At BMW, Rolls-Royce and Mini count in the total, at Mercedes Smart, and at Audi, also Bentley and Lamborghini. The latter luxury brands supply an EV-less share of 23,672 of Audi’s total, so that is not very significant. BMW benefits the most from its sister brands, but it also sells by far the most cars of these three at the brand level. If we limit ourselves to the cars with the blue-white logo on the nose, BMW will still sell 2,252,793 cars in 2023.

To be sure, in all cases, this concerns passenger cars. The trucks and vans from Mercedes, the motorcycles from BMW, and the engines from Audi subsidiary Ducati do not count.

2023
Total sales
Number of EVs
Share EVs

BMW
2,554,183
376,183
14.7%

Mercedes
2,044,100
240,600
11.8%

Audi
1,942,584
178,429
9.2%

What else stands out? Well, BMW also towers far above its competitors when it comes to the absolute and relative number of EVs sold. With 376,183 units sold, 14.7 percent of BMW four-wheelers sold are now fully electric, which is not even that impressive in absolute numbers. Not compared to Tesla, at least, which sold 1.81 million EVs in 2023.

Of these three, BMW is also the brand with the most electric models, although this is partly due to the brand’s naming strategy. After all, at BMW, an iX2 counts as a separate model next to the iX1, while Audi simply calls its flattened Q4 e-tron ‘Q4 Sportback’. If we see the two as one model, then Audi has four EVs: the Q4 e-tron, the Q8 e-tron, the E-Tron GT, and the Q6 e-tron presented this week. Mercedes also counts the similarly-based EQA and EQB as two models. The EQE and EQE SUVs are called the same, but due to their completely different shapes, we see them as separate models. If we continue that line, the total will be six models with the EQS and EQS SUV, but without the van-like EQT and EQV. BMW has the i4, i5 (also as Touring), i7, iX, iX1, iX2, and iX3, so seven of them.

Despite BMW’s relative EV dominance, CEO Oliver Zipse thinks it is time for the EU to take a closer look at next year’s strict CO2 standards. Offering EVs is one thing, he says, but selling EVs is something completely different.