In the first quarter of 2016, the German automaker Mercedes-Benz, owned by Daimler AG (DE: DAIGn), became a leader in sales of "luxury" cars, the rate of increase in its sales figures have surpassed those of BMW more than doubled.
Thus, Mercedes-Benz increased sales in January-March by 13%, to 483 487 cars.
BMW sales rose 6% to 478 743 cars, while Audi sales, a division of Volkswagen AG rose 4% to 455 750.
The sales of Mercedes-Benz vehicles are maintained in high demand for compact cars as well as for GLC SUVs. Sales of Mercedes-Benz A-Class vehicles increased by 26% in the first quarter, exceeding 150 000 figure.
“Mercedes-Benz posted the strongest unit sales in the company’s history in March. And we remain on track,” said Ola Källenius, Daimler board member in charge of Mercedes-Benz Cars.
China, which was not considered Mercedes until now, has become the company’s biggest growth driver. Mercedes has doubled the number of its dealerships in China during the past 2 years. Mercedes sales rose 36% to 106 641 cars in the first 3 months of 2016.
Daimler expects that momentum of the growth of Mercedes-Benz sales will increase in the second half of 2016, when E-class sedan will be ready for sale.
BMW is not planning to upgrade its similar car models until next year.
In March, BMW, however, beat Mercedes-Benz in sales. Accordingly, it sold 201 352 vehicles, which is by 2.9% more than a year earlier, while Mercedes-Benz increased sales by 8.4%, to 198 921 cars.
Audi sold 186 100 in March, increasing the sales by 4.6%.