Daimler AG's new Mercedes-Benz sports car is luring customers away from Porsche SE's iconic 911, even before the gullwing SLS AMG reaches dealers.
Orders placed in advance of tomorrow's showroom debut in Germany mean that new customers may wait until 2012 to get behind the wheel of the 177,310-euro ($237,000) supercar. The sales have been taking a bite out of demand for Porsche as Daimler battles to lure younger, affluent drivers to Mercedes.
"The inflow from the Porsche camp is intriguing; we've already had a lot of conquests," said Thomas Rosier, managing director of Autohaus Rosier GmbH in Oldenburg near Bremen. The family-owned retailer, with 40 locations in Germany offering Mercedes, Peugeot and Volkswagen models, has sold 40 SLS cars and could have agreed to deliver more if stock was available.
Sales of Mercedes, the world's second-largest maker of luxury vehicles, slid 10 percent in 2009. Daimler, the parent company, introduced the 571-horsepower SLS to boost the sporty appeal of the brand and attract younger drivers to challenge luxury leader Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, which doesn't have a rival model.
Mercedes buyers in Germany are 55.6 years old on average, 10 years older than BMW drivers and nine years older than buyers of Volkswagen's Audi, according to a July 2009 study by Sinus Sociovision, a Heidelberg-based research firm.
"The SLS is a hallmark, landmark, beacon product for Mercedes," said Christoph Stuermer, a Frankfurt-based automotive analyst at research firm IHS Global Insight who estimates that the manufacturer will produce about 2,500 SLS cars a year. "Producing this model is very important for Mercedes as a brand. It's a very motivational product."
'Enthusiastic'
Rosier said young and old customers are "equally enthusiastic" about the SLS.
Porsche, which is merging with Volkswagen, shrugged off the competition from the new Mercedes, which costs 4,000 euros more than a top-of-the-line 911 Turbo S. Porsche sold 27,070 911s in fiscal 2009, the lowest volume in five years.
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