![BMW expects that 40% of its sales will be crossovers in 2016](https://repokar.com/public/files/manager/blog/4ac6c89e5a27b05a83b45c69ddd8a4f6.jpg)
For 2016, BMW expects that 40 percent of its sales will be crossovers, up from 34 percent last year.
“In the first nine months (of 2015), across the board, we had too few X1, X3 and X5s,” said CEO Ludwig Willisch.
BMW is expanding its Spartanburg, S.C., factory, and annual production will grow by 100,000 units in 2016 to 450,000 vehicles. It makes a lot of sense to sell these cars in the U.S., as the plant is advantageously situated.
“In a couple of years when we have the X7, the crossovers production will be even higher,” he added. BMW’s crossover lineup consists of the X1, X3, X4, X5, X6 and soon-to-arrive X2 and X7. Are there any numbers BMW can invent between 1 and 8?
Willisch’s revelation is hardly controversial: crossover sales are key to many automakers’ profitability, but BMW apparently has a plan to capitalize right away.
That would seemingly be at odds with U.S. CAFE standards demanding better fuel economy from automakers’ fleets — unless the i5 is a crossover.