German car producer BMW expects Mini sales to reach 160,000 this year after last year's record of 144,000, it emerged yesterday.

Last month booming sales of the Mini, produced in Oxford offset a decline in BMW models to produce a 2.7% rise in group sales to 79,900. Mini sales virtually doubled in January 2002 to 15,100. But capacity constraints at Oxford are likely to limit production this year close to last year's 160,037 and force BMW to vary shift patterns to meet soaring demand.

The Mini is now being sold in 72 countries, with 70% of the Oxford plant's output being for export, but customers have to wait up to six months for delivery of models such as the Cooper S. Sales in Britain, the Mini's biggest market, rose 34% last month compared with January 2002 while the US, its second largest market, saw more than 25,000 sold in the nine months since launch.

The growth in Mini sales in January came as BMW brands saw a 7.5% fall to 64,800 vehicles - largely due to pending model changes. BMW remained confident for the year as a whole "assuming that the world political situation becomes more stable". Having sold more than 1m cars last year, BMW said that after the launch of new models and updates it is "assuming that sales will rise in 2003 - with increasing energy in the second half-year - for all of the group's brands".