The BMW Group has posted its best-ever monthly sales results in April, with gains on almost all continents.
More than 155,400 BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce vehicles were sold worldwide last month, representing an increase of 6.8 per cent on the same period last year.
Deliveries climbed by 5.7 per cent for the first four months of the year to an all-time high of 603,619 vehicles.
"We have achieved our most successful April worldwide sales ever, despite the current weakness of some car markets in Europe," said Ian Robertson, a member of the board of management for sales and marketing at BMW.
"We reported a growth of 2.8 per cent in Europe last month and made strong gains in Asia and the Americas," he added.
The company recorded its best ever first quarter in the Middle East, with sales up 28 per cent compared with a year earlier. More than 6,300 BMW and Mini vehicles were sold across the region in the period.
The UAE was the largest of the 13 Middle Eastern markets, with about half of the sales. In the Emirates, Abu Dhabi accounted for the most.
"In Rolls-Royce we grew 39 per cent from January to April and in BMW we [had] 23 per cent growth," said Arno Husselmann, the general manager of Abu Dhabi Motors, the official BMW importer for Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.
"We are the number one premium retailer in the market. We sold the most premium cars of all the companies in the Middle East," he added.
In 2012, the dealership sold 5,180 BMWs and 152 Rolls-Royces. And in the first quarter of this year alone it sold more than 1,900 BMWs and 39 Rolls-Royces."We will exceed our targets. We are looking for double digit growth every year," said Mr Husselmann. The company unveiled a new service yesterday to register cars inside its Umm Al Nar showroom near the Qaryat Al Beri souq after a law was introduced in March making it mandatory for the owners or their legal representative to register new cars in person.
"We don't want that inconvenience for our customers. [So we said] let's make it all in the one facility," said Mr Husselmann.
"It is a tremendous convenience for the customers to come to the showroom and they buy the car and they can have it registered here. They don't have to go to the traffic department," he added.
There are about nine similar car registration facilities in Abu Dhabi at dealerships owned by groups including Al-Futtaim, Al Masaood and Al Tayer, along with companies that operate car fleets.