Mercedes-Benz Q1 sales in mainland China up 112%

Shanghai, April 14 (Gasgoo.com) Mercedes-Benz, the luxury car division of Daimler AG, recently said that its first-quarter sales in the Chinese mainland surged 112% from a year earlier to 23,610 cars, and China is now Mercedes-Benz's fastest-growing market globally, media reported.

In March, sales of the Mercedes-Benz, Smart, AMG and Mayback brands in mainland China rose 62% year on year to 8,280 cars, the company said on its website on Friday. In China's mainland and Hong Kong, March sales grew 57% to 8,500 units, bringing Q1 sales up 105% to 24,100 units.

Mercedes-Benz sold 68,500 vehicles in China last year, up 77%. The continued rising impetus in the first quarter reinforced the company's confidence and laid a good basis for the entire year's development, said Klaus Maier, President and CEO of Mercedes-Benz China Ltd.

Largely boosted by the government's continued incentives for the auto sector, China's passenger car sales grew 63% year on year to 1.26 million units last month. First-quarter sales soared 76% to 3.52 million units.

Globally, Mercedes-Benz increased sales by 9% in March to 109,300 vehicles. In the first three months, the Mercedes-Benz division and the core brand sold 271,200 and 248,500 cars, up 11% and 15%, respectively.