Mercedes reclaims luxury pole position over BMW with 2.1 million vehicles sold
FRANKFURT AM MAIN: German carmaker Mercedes-Benz overtook homegrown rival BMW to deliver the most luxury vehicles of any manufacturer in 2016, released sales figures showed.
The Stuttgart- based firm sold almost 2.1 million vehicles worldwide, marking growth of 11.3 per cent compared with 2015, parent company Daimler said in a statement.
It was the first time Mercedes sold more than two million vehicles in a year, allowing it to reclaim the top spot it lost to its Munich rival in 2005.
“Extraordinary growth, especially in China and Europe, has placed us at the top in the luxury segment,” Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said.
Mercedes had achieved its best year ever by sales for the sixth time in a row, he added.
China was a powerful growth market, with Mercedes boosting sales there by 26.6 per cent over the year.
“Mercedes used to be very weak in China, it was a market where they made a lot of mistakes, but since then they’ve made up ground,” Stefan Bratzel, director of Germany’s CAM automobile institute, told AFP.
While the firm also saw dou- ble-digit sales growth in Europe, adding 12.4 per cent, US business shrank slightly, by 0.8 per cent.
SUVs were the biggest draw for buyers in 2016, topping 700,000 sales with growth of 34.3 per cent as the firm introduced new models.
Compact cars were also among the top sellers, adding 9.3 per cent to hit almost 637,000 units.
“Mercedes has benefited from a very new range of models,” said auto expert Bratzel, adding to its SUVs as well as updating its designs with “significant improvements”.
Daimler also reported bestever sales for its Smart compact car, which added 21 per cent compared with 2015 to hit 144,500 vehicles sold worldwide.
In its own figures released Monday, BMW said it sold just over 2.0 million vehicles under its flagship brand in 2016, also a new record.
The Munich- based firm notched up growth of 5.2 per cent over 2015’ s result, but couldn’t hold Mercedes off the top of the sales podium.
BMW’s growth fell short of Mercedes in China and Europe and it shrank faster in the US, at 9.7 per cent for its BMW and Mini cars combined.
“We will not at all costs strive for volume leadership” in the race with Mercedes, BMW board member Ian Robertson told AFP at the Detroit Auto Show -- noting that when comparing the groups’ overall figures, BMW had outsold Daimler.
Instead, BMW would aim for a return on sales of 8 to 10 per cent, he went on, as well as unit sales growth in “lower single digits” in 2017.
Like Mercedes, BMW also pointed to “a global trend towards SUVs”, with models from its X range accounting for one in three vehicles sold under the premium brand in 2016.
Meanwhile, Volkswagen’s luxury brand Audi reported on Monday that it had sold almost 1.9 million vehicles in 2016, up 3.8 per cent on the previous year.
The Ingolstadt- based firm suffered “strong headwinds from many important markets,” board member Dietmar Voggenreiter said. — AFP