German carmaker Bayerische Motoren Werke AG's sales hit a record high for July, driven by increased electrified vehicle sales and strength in China, South Korea and Latin America.

BMW Group's total sales edged up 0.2% year over year to 181,051 vehicles in July. Sales of BMW's electrified group, which includes BMW i, BMW iPerformance and MINI Electric, rose 30.9% from a year earlier to 10,649 units. MINI sales were down 2.7%, while sales at motorcycle maker BMW Motorrad increased 0.2% from a year earlier.

"Customer demand for our X vehicles continues to be very high, and now we've increased production capacity by localizing the BMW X3 in China and South Africa, we can already see the positive effect that additional availability has on sales," said Pieter Nota, a BMW board member responsible for sales and the BMW brand.

The carmaker's global sales in the first seven months of 2018 totaled 1,423,565 vehicles, up 1.6% from a year earlier on better results in Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Sales of electrified vehicles increased 40.6% year over year to 71,310 units due to significant growth in several major markets and a more than six-fold increase in China, the company's largest overall market.