The BMW Group continued as one of the world’s leading premium car company once again in April with an increase of 6.1% in sales.

A total of 145,505 (prev. yr. 137,195) BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brand automobiles were sold worldwide last month. Over the past four months the number of deliveries climbed 9.8% to a new record of 571,040 vehicles (prev. yr. 519,958).

“Following on from the best first quarter in the company’s history, we have just reported our most successful April sales ever. We are well on course to achieving a record year in 2012. We are clearly benefitting from a very attractive product line-up which is finding success with customers right across the globe. This momentum will continue as we add new vehicles throughout the year, such as the BMW 6 Series Gran Coupé in June”, said Ian Robertson, member of the board of management, sales and marketing BMW.

Sales continued to grow dynamically in Asia with 39,770 vehicles delivered (prev. yr. 31,803/ +25.1%). China accounted for 27,197 deliveries, an increase of 30.8% over the same month last year (prev. yr. 20,800) in China. Sales were solid across America with 32,705 vehicles delivered in April (prev. yr. 31,491/ +3.9%). In the U.S., 26,793 vehicles were delivered in April which reflects an increase of +6.1% over the same month last year (prev. yr. 25,247).

In Europe, sales remained at last year’s level with 68,033 vehicles sold (prev. yr. 69,409/ -2.0%). Several markets in northern and central Europe attained healthy growth in April, for example the Netherlands (2,100/ +29.0%), France (5,150/ +9.2%) and Austria (2,057/ +9.4%). In Germany, a total of 27,192 new BMW and MINI vehicles were registered in April, an increase of +6.2% over last year (prev. yr. 25,600). The BMW brand accounted for 23,420 registrations (prev. yr. 21,866/ +7.1%) and MINI for 3,772 registrations (prev. yr. 3,734/ +1.0%).