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With 278,732 cars sold, the Bavarian brand narrowly took the U.S. luxury-car sales crown last year.
Welcome to The Grid, R&T's quick roundup of the auto industry and motorsports news you should know this morning.
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BMW Top Selling Luxury-Car Brand In the U.S. in 2020
In a year where car sales were down across the board, BMW at least has some good news to report. With 278,732 cars sold, the Bavarian brand narrowly took the U.S. luxury-car sales crown last year. As BMW Blog points out, BMW was just ahead of Lexus, which sold 275,041 cars, and Mercedes-Benz, which sold 274,916. Audi sold 186,520 cars last year, while Acura rounded out the luxury top-five with 136,982 cars sold. BMW's top sellers were, perhaps unsurprisingly, the X3 and X5 crossovers, though the 3-Series remained strong with over 41,000 units moved.
Cyrlil Abiteboul Out at Renault
This was always going to be a big year for the Alpine (née Renault) Formula 1 team, with the name change, and the return of Fernando Alonso. Now, the team will be headed into the 2021 season with new leadership too. Autosport reports that team principal Cyril Abiteboul is leaving Renault, stepping away from his four-year run running the F1 team and his recently announced position as the head of the Alpine road-car division. Autosport expects current F1 team managing director Marcin Budkowski to take over as principal after Abiteboul's exit.
McLaren May Join Formula E
Under the leadership of Zak Brown, McLaren has diversified its racing activities, joining the IndyCar series, and seriously considering an entry into the new LMDh sports-car category. It's also considering Formula E. The electric race series announced today that McLaren agreed to an option to join for the 2022/2023 season. McLaren is already on the grid as a supplier, but with this, it would become a works team. But in a statement, Brown didn't hint one way or another if this is a done deal.
"The opportunity to take an option on an entry and the completion of the McLaren Applied supplier contract with the FIA at the end of Gen2 gives us the necessary time to decide if Formula E is right for McLaren as a future competition platform," he said.