Official release: The BMW brand achieved its best-ever first quarter, cracking the half million mark for the first time this early in the year. Global BMW sales totalled 503,445 units, an increase of 5.2% on the same period last year. Sales of BMW brand vehicles in March totalled 212,093, an increase of 5.3% compared with the same month last year.

Many models throughout the range contributed to this growth: in March, deliveries of the BMW X1 increased 21.0% (26,759), sales of the BMW X5 were up 20.7% (17,678) while deliveries of the flagship BMW 7 Series grew 74.8% (7,134). The BMW 5 Series, of which the new generation sedan had its first full month on sale in most markets, was delivered to around 35,000 customers worldwide.