China strongest pillar for Rolls-Royce car sales: CEO

China became the largest market for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars last year, surpassing the United States, Torsten Muller-Otvos, chief executive officer at Rolls-Royce, told Xinhua on Thursday.

The super-luxury division of BMW delivered a record 3,630 cars globally in 2013, marking the fourth consecutive record year, Rolls-Royce said in a press release.

China, the United States and the Middle East remained as the three strongest pillars for the company's record sales, of which Chinese deliveries gained 11 percent over the past year, figures showed.

Muller-Otvos said that in 2013 many countries' economy were doing much better than expectations, with the United States posting a significant economic recovery, Asian markets doing well and the Middle East catching up.

"It was, last year, a very close race between the U.S. and China. In 2012, the U.S. was the first, and last year it was China, but only a couple of cars ahead," said Muller-Otvos.

Around a quarter of total car sales of Rolls-Royce came from China, said Muller-Otvos, almost the same level as the United States.

"We are operating in China with 20 dealers, that is a very fruitful cooperation. What we have also done in China is that we have more and more interest in what we called 'bespoke program with Rolls-Royce' where you can basically individualize your car," said Muller-Otvos.

Looking ahead, the CEO said, "I think again we would have a good year for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. The big players, China and the United States, will also definitely contribute again to our market success worldwide."

Muller-Otvos added that the company was thinking about entering the SUV market but had no firm plans as of yet.