Record car sales for BMW boost manufacturing confidence

Sales for the month were up 7.4% compared with 2010 easing fears of a double dip recession, at least in the motor manufacturing industry. The Group's worldwide sales passed the one million mark in August, with a total of 1,073,363 vehicles delivered to customers since the beginning of the year – an increase of 16.8% compared with the first eight months of the previous year. Ian Robertson, BMW AG board member responsible for sales and marketing commented: "We achieved record sales once again in August. Models such as the BMW X3, the BMW 5 Series Sedan and the BMW 5 Series Touring continued to report strong gains and made a positive contribution to our record sales performance last month. Looking ahead, we are confident that we are in a good position with balanced growth across the world and a young, attractive portfolio, including the new BMW 1 Series which goes on sale this month. We expect our growth to increase to double-digit figures in September and we are absolutely on track to achieve our goal of over 1.6 million vehicle sales in 2011."