The German car maker BMW Group achieved record sales in the first quarter of 2012, selling a total of 185,728 BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce vehicles in March – an increase of 12 per cent, compared to 165,846 units in March 2011.

Between January and March, retail volumes rose by 11.2 per cent (more than 40,000 vehicles) to 425,528 units.

The BMW 7 Series reached a new milestone last month with a total of over 200,000 vehicles sold since its introduction at the end of 2008.

Ian Robertson, member of BMW's board of management, sales and marketing, said: “These outstanding results are due to our attractive, young model range and our strategy of healthy, balanced growth across the globe.”

The company sold 153,004 BMWs in March 2012 (2011: 134,895). Strong gains were achieved by the BMW 1 Series, with sales climbing 40.8 per cent to 18,598 vehicles (2011: 13,210), as well as for the BMW X3, with a 59.4 per cent growth in sales and 14,847 vehicles delivered (2011: 9,316).

Sales of the BMW X5 and X6 models remained strong, with 9,496 units (2011: 7,932) and 4,261 units (2011: 3,971) sold, respectively.

BMW 6 Series sales increased nearly sixfold year on year with a total of 2,247 vehicles delivered to customers.

A total of 32,421 Mini brand vehicles were delivered worldwide to customers in March (2011: 30,690 units).

The company sold 12,295 motorcycles in March, up 5.3 per cent compared to 11,675 units in March 2011.