Beijing Mercedes-Benz’s July sales surpasses Brilliance BMW for the first time ever

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai August 20) - Mercedes-Benz is getting closer to the lofty goal of being the top sales among luxury automakers worldwide. The luxury vehicle brand, which has always fallen behind Brilliance BMW (BMW’s Chinese subsidy) in sales, surpasses BMW by around 800 units in sales in July in Chinese market, according to the statistic of China Passenger Car Association, amount to announcing the end of the 12-year long history of BMW’s leading the luxury vehicle market since its establishment.

Though Mercedes China outrun Brilliance BMW in sales in July, the company still sees a big gap with Audi’s domestic models in China, who sold 33,400 units vehicles in July to be the top-seller among luxury automakers in China in July. On the other hand, thanks to the fast growth in China in July, Mercedes-Benz has surpassed BMW and Audi in global sales ranking first among luxury manufactures worldwide in July.

Long before, due to sales channel disorder and slowing down of launching domesticated models in China, Mercedes-Benz had long fallen behind BMW and Audi in sales in Chinese market. Chinese luxury vehicle market surged by 20 percent to 30 percent on a year-on-year basis as BMW and Audi expanded rapidly in the country a few years ago, while Mercedes-Benz China was encountered with sales slide.

The situation began to be improved as the company established a new sales company in China. Beijing Benz sold 22,800 units in China in July, while Brilliance BMW reported sales of 22,000 units. This is the first time that Benz China surpassed BMW in China. A year before, BWM sold 23,300 domesticated vehicles in China in July while Benz only sold 8,353 units in the same period.

The main reason for Benz’s fast growth is the improved competitiveness of its new models. The company launched an array of new C-segment cars in August last year, which gave rise to the overall sales growth of the company. The domestic-built C-segment Benz cars sold 6,922 units in July this year, surpassing 511 units than sales of BMW 3 series in the same period.

At the end of this April, Benz launched domestic-built version of Benz GLA, which reported sales in July of up to 6,160 units, almost twice of the BMW X1’s sales of 3,109 units in the same period.