New M5 Sedan Leads Parade At BMW M Festival In China

BMW is making efforts to build local M communities in several places around the world with its M Festival. It’s an annual event held in select countries, allowing owners of M cars as well as lesser models to come together. The show held in South Africa has gained the most traction so far but Poland is catching up. Last weekend, China had its own celebration of the “world’s most powerful letter.”

Fresh images from the M Festival in Chengdu show a generous array of BMWs on the circuit. The new M5 G90 in Individual Frozen Black Metallic led the parade, which also had more than a few “intruders.” By that we mean you can spot several SUVs, including an XM and the X7, but most vehicles were coupes and sedans joined by the occasional convertible.

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BMW sells all sorts of M Performance and M cars in the world’s second most populous country. As small as the long-wheelbase X1 M35i and as big as the XM. The M135 hot hatch is not available locally, nor is the newly launched M235. However, the latter is coming to China in a long-wheelbase guise next year.

2023 hasn’t exactly been kind to BMW in China. With 147,691 cars delivered in Q3, demand is down by 29.8% compared to the same quarter of last year. Through September, sales have fallen by 13.1% to 523,638 units. The luxury brand cites a “difficult market environment” and “ongoing weak demand.”

Although BMW isn’t performing in China so far this year, the M division is doing great globally. From January until September, demand rose by 2% to 146,574. For the sake of clarity, that number also includes sales of M Performance models. The i4 M50 was the most popular product in 2022 and 2023. In addition, it also ranked first in the first half of 2024. The M branch had record sales last year and could improve those numbers at the end of 2024.

Source: BMW M / Instagram

First published by https://www.bmwblog.com