The BMW group saw worldwide sales in January increase 16.6% year on year to 82,120.
Sales and marketing chief Ian Robertson, said: “We started the new year well with healthy growth in sales, and are continuing the upward trend of the last few months. We have set ourselves ambitious goals for the full year 2010. Thanks to the large number of new, highly-attractive models, such as the new BMW 5 Series and the Mini Countryman, we are aiming for growth in the single-digit percentage range for 2010, and intend to sell more than 1.3m vehicles.”
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BMW brand sales were up 15.9% to 69,852 helped by the 7 Series with 4,742 deliveries (up 89.8%) and the X5 and X6 models with a combined total of 10,565 (up 9.3%). The Z4 was also among the growth drivers with 1,552 sales, up 278.5% from just 410 last January. Volume for the best-selling 3 series rose 7.1% to 22,501 deliveries in January.
The 5 series, despite being on run-out with the new line due for launch in March, saw sales rise 4.9% to 9,314.
“We have already sold virtually all of the current 5 series sedans, so there will be a relatively small volume of final deliveries of this model over the next two months,” said Robertson. “From the second quarter on, the new model – together with the new, recently launched X1 and 5 series GT models – will give sales a further boost.”
BMW said the 5 GT and X1, launched in late October, had started well with 4,093 and 933 sales respectively in January.
Sales at Mini were up 20.4% to 12,181 units with convertible sales growing 510% to 1,191 units while Rolls-Royce volume more than doubled to 87 units from 37 in January 2009. Demand for the new Ghost, launched in December, was strong with orders through to the middle of the year, BMW noted.
