BERLIN, June 13 (Xinhua) -- In May, 181,888 cars of the BMW brand were sold, 4.6 percent more than in the same month last year, the German car manufacturer announced on Thursday.
"With this positive result, we are clearly seeing the impact of our model rollout. In May, we were once again able to grow sales above market, thereby gaining further market share," said Pieter Nota, member of the BMW AG Board of Management.
BMW's business in China mainland is booming. In May, the German car group sold 60,903 vehicles of the BMW and MINI brand in China, 32.8 percent more than in the same month last year. In the months from January to May 2019, sales figures for China mainland grew by 15.9 percent.
The numbers in China are "profiting from a yearly effect because the important X3 series which BMW is now producing locally in Shenyang had not been available on the Chinese market in May last year", a BMW spokesperson told Xinhua on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the two other major German car producers Volkswagen and Daimler also announced their sales figures for May. Unlike BMW, however, car manufacturers Volkswagen and Daimler reported declines in deliveries of their vehicles.
Volkswagen delivered 512,100 vehicles in May, marking a decline of 5.1 percent in comparison with the same month last year.
"In terms of deliveries, May was a month of highs and lows for Volkswagen", commented Juergen Stackmann, board member for sales at Volkswagen.
Daimler sold 195,690 vehicles of the Mercedes-Benz brand worldwide in May, marking a decline of 1.3 percent in comparison with the same month last year.
Going against the negative trend in the German car industry, BMW was particularly successful with the BMW X vehicles series.
With 82,425 deliveries worldwide, the X family accounted for almost half of BMW brand total sales in May and grew by more than 30 percent within one year, according to BMW.
"Especially pleasing is the development of our new X models, as their overall sales increased by over 30 percent in the month", BMW manager Nota said, adding that at the same time i3 sales continued growing and "were up 40 percent in the month".
With regard to electric vehicles, BMW's sales passed the 400,000 mark. Since the market launch of the BMW i3 in November 2013, a total of 406,756 fully-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles have been delivered, according to the company.
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