German carmaker Mercedes Car Group has nearly doubled its operating profit in the second quarter to 1.2 billion euros (1.6 billion dollars), the DaimlerChrysler group said on Wednesday.
The figure for the same period in 2006 was 690 million euros.
Along with its affiliate's results, DaimlerChrysler also published ambitious targets for the luxury car maker. These include reaching an operating profit margin of 10 percent by 2010 at the latest.
The parent company attributed the strong second-quarter performance to the recent introduction of new products and cost cutting measures.
The figures exceeded expectations. Analysts had forecast an operating profit of around one billion euros.
DaimlerChrysler's truck division saw its operating profit increase by 2.5 percent to 601 million euros in the second quarter.
The automaker only published a handful of results on Wednesday because of the sale of its troubled US affiliate Chrysler to private equity firm Cerberus. The transaction is expected to be completed in the autumn.
DaimlerChrysler expects its profit to show a healthy increase once it has rid itself of the burden that Chrysler has become.
The rest of the results are due to be published on August 29.
