Posted on 22 Dec 2008
The world’s top premium carmaker BMW could further cut its production levels and take other cost-saving measures if the vehicle sector remains in crisis, BMW sales and marketing head Ian Robertson told a German magazine.
“When it comes to cutting production, we are looking very carefully at how the market develops over the next weeks and will then decide about possible steps,” Robertson said in article to be published in the next edition of Auto Motor und Sport.
In November, the German luxury carmaker cut production levels and scrapped 2008 earnings forecasts after its quarterly profits slumped 60%.
Robertson said making accurate estimates about the coming year was next to impossible.
“We’ve never had such a broad spectrum of estimates, like we now see. Established market institutes and investment banks see a worldwide drop of between 5% and 10% (in vehicle sales),” Robertson said.
He said BMW’S Rolls-Royce unit had only been slightly affected by the economic downturn and that the vehicle maker stood by its target that Rolls-Royce’s annual unit sales would be about double the current levels at 2,000 vehicles in 2010.
