BMW, Audi report Chinese sales boost in October

The German luxury car maker BMW said on Monday that its sales rose further in October, with a leap in China, news echoed by German rival Audi.

Deliveries of BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce autos rose by 2% from the level in October last year to 113,011 units, after showing a 12-month increase in September for the first time for a year.

Chinese sales leapt by 81% in October to 9,558 units, a statement said, and emerging markets in general have already reported more sales than in all of 2008, it added.

Audi, a premium brand of the Volkswagen group, said that October sales gained 0.4% to 82,750 units, also aided by soaring demand in China.

For the rest of the world, "we expect more solid progression in November and December," BMW sales director Ian Robertson was quoted as saying.

Audi forecast overall 2009 sales of 925,000 cars, well above its initial target of 900,000.

"Our sales figures worldwide have developed much better than expected," Audi sales chief Peter Schwarzenbauer was quoted by a statement as saying.

"The Audi Q5 is emerging as one of our most successful models," he added.

Meanwhile, BMW's own brand turned in last month its first sales increase in a year, edging up by 0.4% to 95,859 units.

On a 10-month basis however, overall group sales still showed a decline of 14 % from the same period in 2008, and the company expects full-year sales to be 10-15% lower than in 2008.

But luxury cars are nonetheless beginning to move off of dealers' lots after missing out on government car-scrapping schemes that mainly boosted sales of small cars.

On Friday, BMW's German rival Daimler said sales of its Mercedes-Benz and Smart cars had gained 4.1% on an annual basis.