It has been a while since we have had a serious post on here, but thanks to BMW’s big announcement this week it looks like that is set to change! Being that this year has actually been quite a tough year for the car industry, the companies that have done well are those that have done something different. Maybe they have released a new car, or entered a new market. Whatever it is, without that something extra a company just isn’t going to do well.

BMWs plan was to keep breaking into China. With this aim in mind, they doubled their sales in China on the year before, a feat which neatly took their net profits sky high. They did report growth elsewhere too – but China was definitely the magic component in a successful year.

So, what are the stats? Well, they made a net profit of €874m ($1.2bn; £765m) in the three months to the end of September,whilst a year earlier they only made €78m. Just as impressively, their revenues rose 36% to €15.9bn, as global quarterly sales of its BMW, Rolls-Royce and Mini cars increased by 13% to 366,190 vehicles. Not bad, eh?