The Munich-based car manufacturer BMW is preparing for a more difficult second half of the year after a strong increase in sales and profit due to the global shortage of chips.

As the bottlenecks persist, the situation becomes more tense, said CFO Nicolas Peter on Tuesday.

Production restrictions and the associated effects on vehicle sales can also be expected in the second half of the year.

In the first half of the year, the Munich-based company benefited from the strong global demand for cars.

Sales improved in the first six months by 28 percent to 55.5 billion euros, and net profit soared to 7.6 billion euros from 362 million.

It played a role that BMW was able to dissolve the provision for the EU antitrust proceedings due to agreements relating to the emission control of diesel cars after the fine was lower than assumed.

But the carmaker also benefited from higher used car prices.

In the US market in particular, it was possible to sell leasing returns at higher prices.

E-car sales more than doubled

As the company announced, it also significantly increased exports against the background of the resurgent economy and customer demand: Between January and the end of June, BMW delivered 1.34 million vehicles of the BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce brands, a good 39 percent more than in first half of 2020.

A "significant growth driver" is the sustained high demand for electrified vehicles, it said.

According to the company, 153,243 purely electrically powered vehicles and plug-in hybrids were delivered in the first half of the year, compared with 61,652 in the same period of the previous year.

In the first half of the year, the semiconductor shortage had less of an impact on BMW than on many other car manufacturers.

But in the meantime, the Munich production line had to shut down too, and many thousands of cars could not be produced.

Nevertheless, the number of deliveries should be solidly above the level of the previous year, the company said.

The profit margin in the automotive segment will therefore reach the upper end of the corridor of seven to nine percent for the year as a whole.

In the first half of the year it was 13 percent.

Analysts expect values ​​of around 10 percent.