BMW on Friday said its group unit sales climbed 10.3% to 101,380 in April, thanks to continued growth in Asia.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
In a note cited by Reuters, it said 5% more BMW, Mini and Rolls Royce cars were sold in 2004 to the end of April than in the same period last year and is forecasting unit sales growth for all three of its brands in 2004.
“In Germany, a noticeable revival in incoming orders from both private and business customers indicates that sales are also set to develop positively in the next few months,” the company said in a statement cited by the news agency.
BMW reported a strong rise in sales to China, where its new plant in Shenyang will be officially opened on May 20, with deliveries growing to 8,577 from 6,065, Reuters said.
Overall sales to Asia rose 17.3% to 29,777 cars, while growing only 4.2% in Western Europe and just 1.8% in North America, the report added.
BMW brand sales accounted for 85,220 units worldwide, a rise of 9.9% over April 2003, bringing the total for the first four months of the year to 307,308 units, a 4.8% increase from 2003, Reuters said.
The report noted that chief executive Helmut Panke earlier this week forecast unit sales growth for the group’s core brand would be a “high single-digit percentage” in 2004.
Mini deliveries rose 12.3% in April to 16,093 units, taking cumulative growth for the year to 6.2%.
This is the fourth calendar year in which the British-built marque has been on sale and its continuing growth, with only three variants of a single car model line (a convertible arrives soon) is remarkable.
The BMW group also sold 67 Rolls-Royces last month, bringing the total so far this year to 206, Reuters added.
