BMW AG said Monday that global sales for the first quarter increased 13.8 percent from the previous year to 315,614 vehicles, with particularly strong sales in China. The company, based in Munich, said in a statement that it delivered 265,809 cars of the BMW brand in the first three months of 2010, up 13.6 percent. Sales of the Mini brand rose 13.6 percent to 49,526 cars, while the Rolls Royce brand increased 20.9 percent to 279 vehicles. BMW said that China emerged as its strongest market, where sales between January and March totaled 34,179 automobiles in China for an increase of 106 percent. The company credited several new models for helping it rebound and predicted it would return to regular growth, AP reported.
