BMW targets higher China sales as deliveries double

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, the world's largest maker of luxury cars, predicted an increase in auto deliveries in China of at least 10 percent this year after sales more than doubled in January.

Sales of BMW and Mini-brand vehicles surged to 11,919 last month from 5,360 a year earlier, the Munich-based company said today in a statement. It was the first time that the German automaker sold more than 10,000 cars and sport-utility vehicles in a single month in China.

"We will continue on our growth track in the Chinese market in 2010," Ian Robertson, BMW's sales chief, said in the statement. "We are once again aiming for growth in the double- digit percentage range in this country."

Luxury carmakers have stepped up sales efforts in China after demand in the U.S. and Europe tumbled because of the economic crisis. BMW is spending 5 billion yuan ($732 million) to build another Chinese factory. The plant, which will be able to assemble 100,000 vehicles a year by 2012, coincides with the expansion of an existing facility. Deliveries in China, which accounted for 7 percent of BMW's 2009 sales, grew 38 percent last year compared with a 10 percent worldwide decline.

BMW's Chinese growth rate of 122 percent in January beat Volkswagen AG's Audi, but failed to keep pace with Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz. Audi, the dominant luxury brand in China, increased sales by 115 percent to 16,798 vehicles, while deliveries of No. 3 Mercedes-Benz surged 147 percent to 8,400 cars and SUVs, according to the companies.

In addition to expansion in China, BMW is targeting higher sales this year in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, Robertson said. The company is building a plant in India, which will build the 3-Series and 5-Series models as well as the X1 compact SUV. The factory, which will assemble components manufactured at other plants, will be operational by the end of 2010, BMW said.