Vehicle sales up again in June, but annual outlook still bleak

The company said 10,650 plug-in hybrid 5 Series cars were sold in the past six months, giving the German automaker a lead position in the segment.

BMW said it will speed up electrification and digitalization, introducing new models such as the all-new iX3, which is the first China-made electric BMW model, in the second half of the year.

Overall, the company delivered 212,617 vehicles in the second quarter in China, its largest market.

The figure represented a 17.1 percent year-on-year growth. Its sales in the first half of the year totaled 329,069 BMW and MINI-branded vehicles.

"The comprehensive recovery shows that the measures we have taken since March are indeed bearing fruit," said Jochen Goller, president and CEO of BMW Group Region China, in a statement.

Geely Auto was the bestselling Chinese carmaker. It sold 110,129 vehicles in June, up 21 percent year-on-year. Deliveries in the first half of 2020 totaled 530,446 vehicles, ranking first among Chinese carmakers and accounting for 38 percent of its goal of delivering 1.41 million cars this year.

An Conghui, Geely's president and CEO, said the company will make every effort to move forward and realize its annual sales goal.

Geely has registered positive growth for three months since April. Its market share by the end of May grew to 6.88 percent in China, up 0.53 percentage points from the same period in 2019.

Volkswagen AG remains the most popular auto group in China despite a fall in its sales.

Its joint venture FAW-Volkswagen sold 874,174 vehicles under its Audi, Volkswagen and Jetta brands, down 9.2 percent year-on-year. But it still ranked as the bestselling carmaker in the country.

Another joint venture SAIC Volkswagen sold 577,385 vehicles in the first half of the year, a 37.3 percent slump from the same period last year.

The company is expected to launch Volkswagen's first China-made model on its electric car-only platform later this year.