By ODUNEWU SEGUN
Mercedes-Benz in the first half of 2016 has overtaken other luxury car segments in the number of vehicles sold, approaching its goal to beat competitors on annual sales for the first time in 11 years.
Mercedes’ sales for the first six months of 2016 increased by 12%, amounting to just over 1 million vehicles. Much of the Mercedes’ sales success is attributed to the newer lineup of vehicles in the Mercedes showroom, including the X3-rivalling GLC mid-size SUV, the new C- and E-Class models as well as their subsequent variants.
“We began the second quarter with double-digit sales growth”, said Ola Källenius, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG, responsible for Mercedes-Benz Cars Marketing & Sales. “In the course of the year, we plan to keep that momentum going with a stream of new products, including four new or revised SUVs”, he adds
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Another major milestone is the fact that Mercedes-Benz delivered more than 156,000 vehicles to customers in August – an increase of 11.8%. The main contribution towards this increase came from the strong rise in unit sales of SUVs of approximately 40%. Mercedes-Benz was able to surpass its strongest August to date in the previous year due to double-digit growth in the Asia-Pacific region and in the domestic market. Two sales milestones were also passed last month. More than four million SUVs and15,000 Mercedes-Maybach S-Class vehicles have been sold since their market launches.
“We are delighted about this advancement and will continue to display relentless effort in offering the best sales and after sales services to customers at all designated workshops and dealerships.” -Mirko Plath, MD/CEO, Weststar Associates Limited, sole distributors of Mercedes-Benz in Nigeria.