Following similar announcements made by Volkswagen or GM, BMW now steps forth and says it copes well with the Asians' expectations. The German manufacturer grew in the first quarter of 2009 by 13,8 percent, compared to the same period in 2008, bringing BMW and MINI car sales to 16,580 units.
“Considering the current global difficult times, the Chinese auto market continues to be very resilient and recently showed signs of recovering the growth path. We achieved again double-digit growth for BMW and MINI vehicles sales for the first quarter, and relatively strong growth of 20.4 percent in March," Christoph Stark, President and CEO of BMW Group Region China said in a release.
When putting mainland China together with Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau, the German Group managed a 5.4 percent year-on-year increase, translating into 18,244 units sold, up from the previous year 17,317.
As for future prospects, BMW looks confident, as far as China is concerned at least. The group's newest release, the 2010 7 Series, is expected to further add digits to the BMW sales reports. "Our new generation 7 Series will be one of the strong contributors to our sales success throughout the year in China," added the CEO.
In all, the Chinese auto market had a record month in March, as it registered a 10.26 percent increase in passenger cars. According to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) reports vehicle sales in China amounted to a total of 1.10 million units, up from the 1.06 million sold in the same month of last year.
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