BMW 225xe

BMW i3

In its latest sales report BMW said that plug-in electric cars sales (BMW i and iPerformance) exceeded expectations in July, and that many of its popular models are effectively sold out for 2016.

Plug-ins again reached about 4% of all BMW car sales in Western Europe.

The BMW i3 noted one of the better results last month - with 2,358 deliveries globally (up 33.7% year-over-year). BMW also has more than 7,000 pre-orders for the 33 kWh version to now fill.

Dr Ian Robertson, Member of the BMW AG Board of Management with responsibility for Sales and Marketing BMW said:

“The BMW Group continues to deliver sustainable, profitable sales growth month after month. While we see growth across our range, the fact that the planned production for our electrified 7 Series, 3 Series and 2 Series Active Tourer models is already sold out this year demonstrates our strategy of rolling out electrification on all models is the right one. We will, of course, now respond to this high customer demand,”

Where available, the plug-in hybrid BMW 330e and BMW 225xe have also become a big hit:

Netherlands: 43% of BMW 3 Series registrations are for the plug-in hybrid BMW 330e model and 26% of 2 Series Active Tourer registrations are for the BMW 225xe

of BMW 3 Series registrations are for the plug-in hybrid model and of 2 Series Active Tourer registrations are for the Scandinavia: 45% of all BMW 3 Series sales was BMW 330e and 55% of all BMW 2 Series Active Tourer sales was BMW 225xe

This of course doesn't mean that you won't be able to find any BMW 330es or 740es for sale from here on out, as the company still has small pre-determined dealer allotments for various regions around the world to ensure that the new models do get maximum exposure.

But it does mean inventory levels will be very stretched out, so if you do manage to find these in-demand plug-ins in stock somewhere, you certainly aren't going to find any deep discounting.

Of note: It is somewhat ironic that BMW, who was running a "why wait for that 'other' EV to show up" advertising spots (below) not so long ago, now also finds itself asking consumers to wait for its wares.