The first quarter of 2017 has also surpassed all previous quarters, with sales rising by 16 percent to 560,625 units.
06 Apr 2017 | 2644 Views | By Autocar Pro News Desk
March 2017 has turned out to be the strongest sales month in the history of Mercedes-Benz with year-on-year growth of 14.8 percent and 228,296 vehicles delivered. The first quarter of 2017 also surpassed all previous quarters, with sales rising by 16 percent to 560,625 units. In March, Mercedes-Benz was the ...
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March 2017 has turned out to be the strongest sales month in the history of Mercedes-Benz with year-on-year growth of 14.8 percent and 228,296 vehicles delivered. The first quarter of 2017 also surpassed all previous quarters, with sales rising by 16 percent to 560,625 units. In March, Mercedes-Benz was the premium-market leader in countries including Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada and Mexico.
“In the first quarter of 2017, Mercedes-Benz delivered 560,625 vehicles to customers worldwide, an increase of 16 percent. That’s the highest number of cars we have ever sold in one quarter,” said Britta Seeger, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG responsible for Mercedes-Benz Cars Marketing & Sales. “The E-Class Saloon and Estate continued along their successful path in March with growth of around 65 percent. The bestselling model series of Mercedes-Benz has now been completed with the new E-Class Cabriolet, which we presented to the public at the Geneva Motor Show.”
Sales by region and market
In Europe, Mercedes-Benz sold over more than 100,000 vehicles for the first time in one month: A total of 109,237 units were sold in March (+11.8%) and 233,329 units in the first quarter (+10.8%), the highest number ever sold in the first quarter. Double-digit growth was recorded in March and in the first quarter in the Great Britain, Belgium, Spain, Austria and Poland. In its home market of Germany, Mercedes-Benz sold 70,594 cars (+8.9%).
Unit sales in Asia-Pacific region rose to hit a new record of 78,649 cars this March (+23.1%). Q1 sales were also the highest ever (219,418 units, +27.4%). In China, sales in March grew by more than 30 percent to 49,871 vehicles, a new record. In South Korea, Australia and Malaysia, the Stuttgart-based company set best-ever figures for sales in March and in the first quarter.
Best-ever sales in March were also notched in the NAFTA region, where 34,922 automobiles were sold, an increase of 6.3 percent. Furthermore, Mercedes-Benz recorded its highest number of cars ever sold in a first quarter with a total of 94,142 vehicles delivered to customers in the region (+7.1%). New records for the first quarter were also set for each of the individual NAFTA countries: the USA, Canada and Mexico. In the USA, demand was up by 4.5 percent in the first three months of the year, resulting in sales of 79,141 units.
Sales by model
The current-generation E-Class is seeing huge demand and for the first time in the history of Mercedes-Benz, more than 35,000 saloon and estate models were sold in one month (+64.7%). Demand was particularly strong last month for the long-wheelbase version of the E-Class Saloon – sales more than doubled of this model, which is locally produced in China. And the new E-Class All-Terrain stimulated additional demand in its first sales month.
SUV sales were at an all-time high in March: 70,631 (+12.8%) with strongest growth posted by the GLS whose sales more than doubled last month.
Demand for the dream cars from Mercedes-Benz increased by 33.7 percent in March to 20,023 units comprising the new Cabriolet, Coupé or Roadster.
Meanwhile, sales of smart models amounted to 34,156 units in the first three months of this year. The smart fortwo and forfour were especially popular in Great Britain, where the urban microcars achieved their best-ever sales figures in March as well as in the first quarter.