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| BMW's new 5 Series / Courtesy of BMW Korea |
By Kim Hyun-bin
BMW Korea has seen a continuous surge in sales.
According to the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association's (KAIDA) newly registered vehicle report, BMW sold 47,093 units between January and October, which is a 37 percent increase on the same period last year.
The positive result is even more meaningful as it comes during the COVID-19 pandemic, with Korean consumers continuing their support for the brand, as well as showing the success of BMW Korea's investment in the market for the past 25 years.
On October 5, BMW's new 5 Series made its global debut in Korea. This was rare, because the German automaker usually introduces it new lines in its home country or at major international motor shows.
Due to the pandemic, the event to launch the vehicle was at the BMW Driving Center on Yeongjong Island, Incheon. The highly anticipated event was a great success, becoming a model showing how to release a new product line amid the pandemic. It also put an emphasis on the importance of the Korean market.
Even before BMW Korea's world premiere, Korean consumers were highly intrigued by the 5 Series. It alone sold 1,739 units in October, which is 760 units more than other new models released in a similar time frame.
Although BMW Korea is a foreign firm based in the country, it reinvests part of its profits into Korea. It places customer satisfaction and communication as a priority and works to enhance trust and provide the best service to customers.
Through BMW's continuous work, it has achieved not only excellent sales results but set up cultural infrastructure, service expansion, economic investments and secured key BMW facilities, which indirectly injected around 28 trillion won into the market.
To enhance customer satisfaction, BMW Korea has focused on expanding its service base. Currently, under the seven official BMW dealerships, they own the most showrooms and service centers in the country. As of this year, there are 57 BMW and 22 MINI showrooms and 63 BMW and 25 MINI service centers around Korea.
In May 2017, in collaboration with BMW Group and BMW Korea, a total of 130 billion won was invested in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, to establish a new regional distribution center (RDC), becoming the world's largest BMW RDC overseas.
"In the past 25 years, BMW's customer-centric management philosophy has allowed the firm to gain the trust of the public," Han Sang-yun, head of BMW Group Korea said. "We will strengthen our customer-focused business and continue our sincere investment in Korean society."
Expanding localization effort
In addition to build the driving center and new regional distribution center, BMW Group Korea is expanding its localization effort to grow into a trusted car brand here.
In 2011, the company established BMW Korea Future Fund, a charitable organization focusing on social contribution activities. The organization was the first one among imported car brands doing business in Korea.
For about 10 years, from 2011 to 2019, the organization achieved an enormous amount of social contribution activities as the company donated a combined total of about 32 billion won.
Also, BMW Group Korea is increasing its direct and indirect investments in Korea to prepare for the next 25 years and strengthen its position here. The company signed a contract with SK Telecom, the country's largest mobile carrier, to use the latter's future navigation system in the former's vehicles.
BMW also inked a long-term electric vehicle battery supply deal worth 2.9 billion euros with Samsung SDI, a battery-manufacturing affiliate of Samsung Group as the former will use the latter's battery cells in its BMW eDrive, a drive system technology for electric vehicles, from 2021 to 2031.
"So far, 28 Korean companies have been working as partners of BMW and their total contract amount from 2009 to 2029 will be around 27.3 trillion won," BMW Group Korea said.
