Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, the world’s biggest manufacturer of luxury vehicles, expanded its lead over Volkswagen AG’s Audi, buoyed by demand for the X3 sport-utility vehicle.
Sales at BMW’s namesake brand rose 9.3 percent to 128,446 vehicles in September as deliveries of the X3 more than tripled, the Munich-based automaker said Monday in a statement. Audi posted a 17 percent gain, delivering 120,200 autos on stronger demand in China, the Ingolstadt, Germany-based company said.
“It’s all holding up extremely well,” said Arndt Ellinghorst, an analyst with Credit Suisse in London. The growth rates of about 20 percent that BMW and Audi posted in China are “quite healthy.”
BMW, Audi, and Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz are targeting record sales this year and anticipate demand for high-end vehicles to outpace the broader auto market in the coming years. European investor confidence fell to the lowest in more than two years this month on concern that the region’s debt crisis and weaker growth in emerging markets will hurt economic expansion. (Bloomberg)
