"Despite many markets showing continuing volatility, we remain optimistic that this positive trend will continue through 2016," sales chief Ian Robertson said in a statement on Tuesday.

Deliveries of BMW and MINI model cars in China were up 8.4 percent at 43,441 vehicles in January, while deliveries in the United States slipped 4 percent to 26,667 cars to due to storms that disrupted large parts of the country, BMW said.

Sales in Europe were up rose 10.9 percent, helped by double-digit growth in Italy, France and Spain.

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Arno Schuetze)