Higher prices and strong electric vehicle (EV) sales helped German automaker BMW AG beat analysts’ forecasts yesterday with a 42.4 percent year-on-year increase in third-quarter net profit to 2.58 billion euros (US$2.99 billion). The premium automaker, which said earlier this year it expected to deliver up to 90,000 fewer vehicles this year because of a global shortage of semiconductors, saw deliveries fall 12.2 percent in the third quarter, but still boosted revenues by 4.5 percent. Electric vehicles in particular saw a significant boost, with sales in the nine months to September almost do...