BMW: China sales more than double in January

(AP) — Automaker BMW AG, the world's biggest maker of luxury cars, said Friday that its January sales in China more than doubled from a year earlier.

BMW, based in Munich, said it sold 11,919 BMW and Mini vehicles in China last month, up from 5,360 in January 2009.

"We will continue on our growth track in the Chinese market in 2010. Although we already saw a very strong performance there last year, we are once again aiming for growth in the double-digit percentage range in this country," said Ian Robertson, who oversees sales and marketing for BMW.

In 2009, the automaker sold 90,536 BMW and Mini brand cars in China, up 37.5 percent from 2008.

Shares of BMW were down 1.9 percent to euro29.75 ($41.19) in Frankfurt trading. That was worse than the overall decline of the DAX index of blue-chip stocks, which was down nearly 1.3 percent.

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