Thanks to growing revenues and sales in Asia and especially China, and to a lesser extent, North America, BMW was able to offset a stagnant European market in the third quarter of the year.
The total number of BMW, Mini, and Rolls-Royce vehicles sold to customers during the third quarter of 2012 increased by 9.0% to 434,963 units.
"We have had a good third quarter, setting new sales volume, revenues, and earnings records in the face of a challenging market environment," stated the company's CEO, Norbert Reithofer.
"We expect further sales volume growth for the fourth quarter, even though it is clear that we ––and indeed the sector as a whole ––are likely to be confronted with adverse business conditions", he added.
In the first nine months of the year, the BMW Group has sold 1,335,502 vehicles of all three brands, which represents an increase of 8.3 per cent over the same period last year.
While European sales edged up only by 0.8% to 640,207 vehciles from January to September, in North America, the carmaker's sales rose by 7.4% to 264,207 units, including 235,487 (+7.1%) in the USA.
The BMW Group did even better in Asia where it delivered 359,103 cars and trucks (+27.1%) during the period from January to September, including 237,650 (+33.3%) in China and 42,038 cars (+21.5%) in Japan. ––Paul Duchene
