SHANGHAI, Aug 5 – Germany’s luxury carmaker BMW expects its China car sales to rise more than 30 per cent this year, boosted by the country’s robust economic growth, its China chief said today.

BMW China expects sales volume to hit 120,000 units in 2010, up from about 90,000 units in 2009.

The world’s largest premium car maker sold more than 75,000 BMW and Mini brand cars in China in the first half of 2010.

“We are well on the way to reach our target. We are quite happy and confident,” said Christoph Stark, president & CEO, BMW Group Region China.

“None of us had expected the market to run so fast this year,” Stark, a former Daimler Chrysler AG executive, told a small group of reporters in Shanghai as the car maker launched a new 5-series sedan in the country.

BMW, which partners with the state parent of Brilliance China Automotive, currently operates a plant in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang, making BMW 3-series and 5-series sedans. – Reuters