BMW is forecasting higher underlying profit for this year along with record sales despite higher raw material costs and the strong euro. Chief Executive Norbert Reithofer did not seem too concerned by a US economic slowdown and confirmed BMW has protect itself against the weakness of the dollar through currency hedging: "The BMW Group is the largest European luxury car manufacturer in the US market. That is why we are more concerned about the fall of the dollar than our competitors who are selling fewer cars than us."
Sales by the world's largest luxury carmaker - including the Mini and Rolls-Royces marques - have steadily grown, from 1.1 million in 2003 to 1.5 million last year. That was a 9.2% increase on 2006. The company announced a target of 1.8 million sales annually by 2012.
Last year's pretax profit was 3.78 eight billion euros and BMW said earnings this year should exceed that.
The company also revealed it is working on what it called 'completely new car and mobility concepts for mega-cities' possibly including a battery powered vehicle.
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