BMW set to remain biggest premium car maker

BMW AG appears on track to retain its crown as the world's best-selling luxury car maker this year after its core brand posted a 20% rise in sales to 108,187 cars in November, fueled by a growing number of affluent Chinese customers and a recovery of the U.S. market.

"We ... were able to expand our market share world-wide," BMW sales chief Ian Robertson said in a statement, noting that the company continues "to aim for a good balance between our sales in Europe, the Americas and Asia."

The main growth drivers at BMW last month were the new generation 5-series, the X1 small sports-utility-vehicle and the larger X5 SUV.

Booming demand in China fueled a faster-than-expected recovery in demand for luxury cars in recent months from last year's industry woes. China this year overtook the U.K. as BMW's third-largest sales region after Germany and the U.S. BMW's sales in China more than doubled year-to-year to 17,302 cars last month. Global sales at the BMW brand were up 15% in the January-to-November period compared with the same period last year at 1.11 million cars.

Rival Audi AG, a unit of Volkswagen AG, Wednesday also reported a 15% sales rise for the eleven months period to just above 1 million cars. Audi sales chief Peter Schwarzenbauer said Germany will remain the brand's single-largest market this year despite the strong growth in China. "We expect that the real boom in China is still ahead of us," Schwarzenbauer said.

Audi is the market leader in the fast-growing Chinese market, thanks to an early market entry of its parent, but still lags its larger German peers BMW and Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz brand in terms of U.S. sales volumes.

Last week, Mercedes-Benz posted a 16% sales rise in the January-to-November period to 1.06 million cars, after a 19% increase to 105,200 cars last month.