As BMW Group keeps focus on its long-term goal of innovative mobility, the OEM’s financial services unit now holds $147.6 billion in consumer loan contracts on its balance sheet, up 3.5% year over year, according to its second-quarter earnings report.
BMW Financial Services signed 480,303 new credit financing and leasing contracts with retail customers in the second quarter, an increase of 2.5% year over year. In the U.S., contracts were up 0.8% compared with the previous six-month period ending in December.
Meanwhile, leasing penetration rates remained flat year over year at 47.4%, while second quarter pre-tax earnings climbed 2.7% to $701 million.
“The financial services segment continued to perform well,” Nicolas Peter, chief financial officer, said on the earnings call Thursday. “Also, our credit loss ratio remains low and residual values for our leasing portfolio have developed as expected.”
During the earnings call, Harald Krüger, chairman and chief executive, reiterated the OEM’s goals toward expanding its mobility services. In March, BMW Group and Daimler AG announced the merger of its mobility service divisions, which is still pending approval.
“Together, we will take innovative mobility service to a whole new level,” Krüger said on the call.
Daimler Financial’s Car2go service launched a fleet of 400 Mercedes-Benz vehicles in Chicago just last week.
On the electric vehicle side, Krüger also emphasized the OEM’s goals to reach 140,000 electric vehicles delivered to consumers this year. Currently, BMW offers 10 electric or plug-in hybrid models.
“Since the start of this year, we have delivered more than 60,600 electrified vehicles to customers, an increase of over 40% year-on-year,” Krüger said. “We will release the MINI Electric late next year, followed in 2020 by the first fully electric BMW, the iX3.”
