Daimler says Mercedes sales up in August

AFP (Berlin) - German car maker Daimler said on Monday that sales of its Mercedes-Benz cars rose in August, driven by strong demand on its home market.

Daimler said in a statement it told a total 93,162 of its Mercedes-Benz and Smart cars last month, an increase of 7.4 percent over the same month a year earlier.

Sales of the Mercedes-Benz brand alone grew by 7.9 percent, while Smart sales were up by just 0.5 percent.

"Our sales continued to develop very well in August. Germany, as our largest market, was an important growth driver, as well as many other markets in which we increased our sales considerably," said Mercedes-Benz sales chief Joachim Schmidt.

Growth has been solid so far this year and in the eight months to August total unit sales were up 8.4 percent at 867,379 units.

Schmidt said the group was confident for the rest of the year.

"All in all, we expect strong sales in the second half of the year and want to grow compared to last year. Record sales over the past eight months have created a very good basis for us to meet our full-year target of selling over 1.35 million" Mercedes-Benz and Smart cars, he said.

Germany is the group's most important market and domestic sales jumped 23.2 percent to 19,412 units in August alone, compared with an increase of 3.2 percent in China.