Mercedes-Benz brand sales grew faster in January than at BMW and Audi, helping the carmaker to further close the gap in deliveries to its premium rivals.
Mercedes posted a 15 percent gain last month to 109,500 vehicles on a 32 percent surge for its compacts cars. Sales at Audi rose 12 percent to 124,850 cars, while BMW advanced 9 percent to 117,200 vehicles.
Daimler CEO Officer Dieter Zetsche is rolling out 30 new vehicles by the end of the decade, 13 of which will have no predecessor, in an effort to regain the sales advantage he lost to BMW in 2005 and Audi in 2011.
All three posted record sales last year and aim for further growth in 2014. For the first time since 2010, Mercedes last year posted a higher growth rate than BMW, and in the final months of 2013 grew faster than Audi. Mercedes’s full-year deliveries increased 11 percent to 1.46 million, compared with Audi’s 8 percent increase to 1.58 million BMW brand sales rose 8 percent to 1.65 million.
Mercedes’s China sales last month increased 45 percent as the flagship S class gained 69 percent globally. Mercedes couldn’t produce enough compact vehicles to meet demand, Zetsche told analysts last week. The company is introducing the compact GLA SUV in March as its fourth compact model, joining the CLA, A-class and B class.
Audi’s January sales in China rose 18 percent to 44,500 vehicles on demand for its top-of-the-line Q7 SUV. Global growth was boosted by a 67 percent surge for the A3 compact, and 73 percent gain for compact Q3 SUV.
