BMW Group boosted first quarter 2008 sales 5.7% to 351,787 vehicles, the automaker said on Monday.
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Deliveries of BMW brand models rose 2.7% to 293,550 units. Mini, with new Clubman models in the range, posted a “significant” increase of 23.6% to 58,054 units while Rolls-Royce, also with new models, shipped 183 cars, up 61.9%.
German sales rose 6.7% to 64,230 during the quarter but the key US marlet posted a 9.2% fall to 68,529 units.
“Despite the current market conditions there, the US market remained the largest for the [group]. The company is expecting the US launch of new models such as the 1 series coupé and cabrio, the X6 and the diesel variants of the 3 series and X5 to boost sales further in the second half of the year,” BMW said.
Some other European markets saw good Q1 results. Sales in Portugal, for example, rose 29.2% to 2,860 units. In France, deliveries rose 23.7% to 16,752, in Italy by 9.8% to 27,112 and in Britain/Ireland by 6.9% to 45,210 vehicles.
In emerging markets, India saw an 800% rise to 862 units, Russia 40.0% to 4,211 and China 43.2% to 14,574. South Korea sales rose 37.1% to 2,380.
March was a record month for BMW group sales with a rise of 8.2% to 153,184 units.
BMW brand sales rose 5.3% to 126,406 units.
