BMW China sales double to 12,440 cars in April

Shanghai, May 12 (Gasgoo.com) German luxury car maker BMW AG recently said that its car sales in China last month more than doubled from a year earlier to over 12,000 units, Dow Jones reported.

A spokesman for BMW said the company sold 12,440 cars in China in April, compared with 5,789 in April 2009. In the first four months of the year, BMW's group sales came to a total of 46,619 cars, up from 22,369 of a year earlier.

The core BMW brand sold 11,700 cars in China last month (up from 5,576 of a year earlier) and 44,026 units in the first four months (up from 21,426 of a year earlier). The flagship 7-series sedan, the X5 and X6 SUVs saw strong market demand in China.

German rival Mercedes-Benz's sales doubled on year in China to 11,300 cars in April and to 35,400 in the first four months. Audi sales in China's mainland and Hong Kong rose 61% to 19,606 vehicles in April and sales in the first four months came to 71,055 cars, up 73%.

BMW's Chinese venture BMW Brilliance will more than double its annual production to 100,000 vehicles in 2012 and the capacity may eventually be tripled, the company said earlier this year.

China is overtaking the UK as BMW's third largest market (after Germany and the U.S.). BMW plans to sell over 100,000 cars in China this year, up from 90,536 in 2009.