The Munich-based carmaker announced today (6th May) that sales of BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brand cars went up by 8.7% to a new first-quarter record of 487,024 units, compared to 448,200 for the same period in 2013.

Group revenues rose by 3.9% to €18.2bn in the opening quarter of the year (2013: €17.5bn) whilst pre-tax profit grew by 8.1% to €2.17bn (2013: €2bn).

BMW-branded vehicles saw strong growth, with worldwide sales up by 12.3% to 428,259 units (2013: 381,404 units), marking the first time the brand has sold more than 400,000 vehicles in the first quarter of a financial year. Strong demand was seen for the X1, X3 and X5.

However, first-quarter sales of MINI vehicles decreased 12.5% to 57,868 units (2013: 66,154 units), in line with expectations due to launch of the brand's core model – the new MINI Hatch – which began delivery in March.

After four record years in succession, Rolls-Royce continued the trend in the first quarter 2014, with a total of 897 Rolls-Royce cars delivered to customers worldwide, up 39.7% on the 2013 figure of 642 units.

China played a strong role in the growth, with a 25.4% increase in deliveries to 108,143 units (2013: 86,224).

However, sales also remained upbeat in Europe despite some challenging conditions still to be faced in a number of markets. Q1 sales in the region rose by 3.4% to 214,210 units (2013: 207,243 units).

First-quarter sales in the Americas region rose by 3.5% to 99,840 units (2013: 96,488 units), including 81,248 units sold in the USA (2013: 79,117 units; +2.7%).

Commenting on the figures, chairman Norbert Reithofer said the group’s 2014 targets include record sales over two million cars as well as record pre-tax profits.

He added: ‘Two factors should have a positive effect on our business development this year: first, demand in the key automotive regions of North America and Asia is increasing. In Europe, we were also able to record a slight growth in sales in the first quarter. Second, we are offering our customers a young and attractive model portfolio.

‘Of course, it is important that the economic uptrend in Europe stabilises further. However, we are well aware that a number of risks still exist: High public debt, unequal development of worldwide economic markets, and political tensions and conflicts.

‘Our business environment can be affected by these and so remains volatile. As a successful global company, we continue to aim for a balanced distribution of sales in the three large regions: Europe, Asia and America. In this way, we avoid one-sided dependencies.’