BMW auto sales hit record in first quarter

FRANKFURT: German top-of-the-range carmaker BMW said Wednesday it achieved record sales in the first quarter of 2012, powered by growth in all key markets, including Germany, the United States and China.

BMW said in a statement it sold 425,528 cars worldwide in the January-March period, up 11.2 percent compared with a year earlier.

It was "the best quarter in our company's history," it said. Chinese sales jumped 36.8 percent to 80,014, with the United States up 16.6 percent at 75,729 and Germany up 2.0 percent to 66,222. Looking ahead to the whole year, BMW said it hoped to grow faster than the overall market and was targetting record sales of its BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce brand cars.