German automaker BMW revealed in its third-quarter earnings release that its net profit for the period fell by 1.8% to 1.79 euros from 1.82 billion euros a year ago. The decline was due to higher spending for research and development and advanced technologies that will let the company switch to electric cars.
In the July to September period, the company’s pre-tax profit fell by 5.9% to 2.42 billion euros, while its EBIT margin decreased by 3.2% to 2.3 billion euros. Revenue edged up by 0.3% to 23.42 billion euros.
The figure exceeded analysts’ expectations for 22.97 billion euros.
Sales of BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce vehicles increased by to 590,415 units in the third quarter, up 1.2% from 583,499 in the same period a year before.
The production of cars grew by 3.5% to 614.531 units, while production of motorcycles increased by 31.7% to 41,443 units.
In January-September, BMW sold 1,811,234 vehicles. Particularly, 437,111 units were sold in China.