The BMW Group notched another sales record as its global sales topped more than 163,000 vehicles for the month of February.
According to the company, that was a 7.9% increase over the same time last year. For 2016, the company reported 316,846 vehicles sold across all three of its brands globally which is a 7.7% increase over the first two months of 2015.
“I am delighted that our sales continue to grow at a sustainable rate,” said Ian Robertson, a member of the BMW Board of Management responsible for sales and marketing, in a statement.
Over the first two months of the year, sales of BMW brand vehicles increased by 8.3% to 277,404 sold, according to the company. South Carolina-produced X models saw sales growth over the year as the X3 had sales increase by 16.8% to 22,694 and the X6 had sales of 6,869, or a 20.3% increase.
Sales of the MINI brand also had an increase over the month as a total of 39,237 vehicles have sold in the first two months of the year. The biggest mover was the MINI 5-door which increased sales by 29.5% over the first two months of the year in 2015.
Regionally, sales of the BMW brand were strongest in Europe and Asia as North American sales continue to recover from a slow January. BMW and MINI vehicle sales increased 11.4% with 134,140 vehicles sold in the first two months of the year. Italy, France and Spain all had double-digit sales growth during the period with sales in Spain seeing the largest increase of 22.5%.
In Asia, sales in Japan increased by 15% which sparked 12.1% overall sales growth in that region. Mainland China sales grew by 12.7% to 80,215 while sales in South Korea were up 13.3%.
In North America, sales were down 6.4% overall between BMW and MINI as sales in the United States dropped 8.7% over the same time a year ago. Sales in Canada, however, did jump 8.8% to 5.191.
“As we expected, we are seeing tailwinds in some markets but headwinds in others,” Robertson said. “However, with our innovative new models, we remain optimistic that we will continue to achieve steady sales growth as the year progresses.”