Mercedes sets new record, looks to dealer expansion

• Source: xinhua
• [16:25 July 13 2009]
• Comments

While the global auto industry remains mired in the ongoing financial crisis, German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz is basking in the warm glow of continued success in China, now its fastest-growing market in the world.

The German icon has registered exceptional sales since the first of the year, even breaking records four months in a row.

Its growth rate on the mainland now leads all luxury brands and it continued to post impressive figures in June, when it delivered more than 5,100 vehicles, an increase of 52 percent over the same month in 2008.

In the first half of 2009, Mercedes sold nearly 27,000 luxury vehicles to Chinese customers, a 50 percent jump over last year.

Its SUV family and locally produced C-Class matched sales for all of 2008 in just the first six months of this year. The newly launched GLK, B-Class and Smart also show promising market potential.

As well, more than 4,000 orders for the all-new E-Class scheduled for launch late this month have been booked since the model was unveiled in April.

"This success is very encouraging because our growth not only leads all Mercedes-Benz global markets, but it also far surpasses the industry average and competitors in China," said Bjoern Hauber, general manager of sales and marketing with Mercedes-Benz China Ltd.

"Our success in the first half of the year was driven by a combination of factors including China's encouraging macroeconomic environment, Mercedes-Benz's comprehensive product strategy and its efforts to achieve the highest customer satisfaction," he added.

While not quite matching Mercedes growth, sales by Audi and BMW also showed robust increases in the first six months - 10.4 percent and 24 percent respectively.

China's car market has now surpassed the US as the biggest in the world. It posted first half sales of 6.1 million units, a 17.69 percent increase over last year.