Despite the continued slowdown across much of Europe, Mercedes-Benz brand vehicles set a new global sales record for the month of September and for the third quarter. Brand deliveries rose 2% year-on-year last month to 123,358 units, topping the previous record set in the same month last year. For the July-September quarter, global brand sales rose 1.1% to 312,001 units. Year-to-date sales of Mercedes-Benz brand vehicles rose 5% to 964,926 units – also a new record for the nine-month period.
For the Mercedes-Benz Cars division as a whole (which includes Mercedes-Benz, smart and Maybach brand vehicles), global sales rose 2.4% last month to set a new September record at 132,606 units. Year-to-date sales at the division rose 4.7% to 1,043,910 units.
“Despite numerous model changeovers and the difficult market environment in southern Europe, we sold more vehicles than ever before in September and the third quarter. Thus we are still on track to achieve a new sales record for the year as a whole,” commented Joachim Schmidt, Executive Vice President Sales and Marketing, Mercedes-Benz Cars.
The OEM is expecting coming months to benefit from continued strong response to the new A-Class, the facelifted GLK and the new M-Class and B-Class.
By region, the US remained a key growth driver for Mercedes-Benz, with sales records set for both September and the year-to-date. September sales of Mercedes-Benz cars in the US rose 7% to 23,156 units, while year-to-date sales increased 12.7% to 191,618 units. September and year-to-date sales records for the brand were also set in Mexico, Canada, China and Russia.
Sales in the Asia-Pacific region rose 7.8% in September to 30,922. Japan accounted for 5,406 of these, up 18% year-on-year. Europe proved a weak spot for the brand last month. In its home market of Germany, Mercedes-Benz sales fell 7.9% to 22,566 units, dampening year-to-date sales to 190,758 units, up 0.4%. Its sales in western Europe (excluding Germany) as whole inched up 1.6% to 33,929 vehicles, leaving year-to-date sales in the region up 0.3%. Within western Europe, the UK proved a strong spot, with sales rising 14% to 16,500 units.
smart sales in September rose 8.9% year-on-year to 9,248 units. The US (+119.6%), China including Hong Kong (+18.3%), Canada (+153.9%) and Mexico (+45.3%) again proved key growth regions. smart sales set new records for the year-to-date and September in China and Mexico. For the first nine months this year, global smart sales remained up 1.8% at 78,984 units.
