Mercedes-Benz Continues to be the Top Premium Brand with Record Sales in 2018

Mercedes-Benz continues to be the top premium brand in the world in terms of unit sales. 2018 was a difficult year for the automotive industry. Still, Mercedes-Benz managed to increase its car sales across the globe to 2,310,185 units thus making it a record year eight years in a row. The main factor that played a role in helping the car division of Daimler AG to set a record this year was the immense success that Mercedes-Benz had in the Asia-Pacific region and particularly in the Chinese market there. Globally, the success of the brand was driven by models like the E-Class Saloon, the Estate and the complete range of SUVs.

Commenting on the brand’s success, Dr Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars said that Mercedes-Benz scored a hat-trick in 2018 by being the top brand in the premium segment for three consecutive years. Though the environment was highly competitive, Mercedes-Benz continued to remain at the top, mainly thanks to the brand’s double-digit growth in China and the launch of many new models that were received well by both existing and new customers across the world. He said that the company would continue to rejuvenate its portfolio systematically in 2019.

Mercedes-Benz crowned its success in 2018 with the best quarter in the company’s history (595,098 units, +4.0%). The company also set a new record in December with sales of 206,532 units (+6.7%). Last year, Mercedes-Benz had the maximum number of new registrations in many markets, and emerged as the market leader in several key markets like the US, Canada, Singapore, France, Turkey, Brazil, Argentina, Portugal, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, Poland, Denmark, Hungary, Romania, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Thailand, India, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

Britta Seeger, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG responsible for Mercedes-Benz Cars Marketing and Sales said that Mercedes-Benz surpassed its own sales record for the eighth year with over 2.4 million deliveries in 2018. The company also managed to retain its top position in the premium segment though market conditions were not very favorable.

Seeger concluded, “In recent months, the strong growth of the new A-Class has shown the impetus high-caliber innovations such as MBUX can have in the market. In 2019, more than 10 Mercedes-Benz models will inspire our customers with the intuitive operating concept of MBUX and its artificial intelligence – not only in the compact car segment, but also in SUV segment.”