(August 6, 2015) STUTTGART, Germany — Mercedes-Benz handed over 149,753 vehicles to customers in July, an increase of 15.2% from July 2014. New sales records were set both in the month of July and in the first seven months of the year with annual sales of 1,048,178 units, an increase of 14.7%.

This was due in particular to strong sales of the C-Class and the compact cars of the brand with the three-pointed star.

“We passed the one-million mark already in July. Never before have we delivered so many cars to customers in the first seven months of a year. About a quarter of them are C-Class Saloons and Estates,” said Ola Källenius, member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG, responsible for Mercedes-Benz Cars Marketing & Sales.

Strong demand for Mercedes cars remained unbroken in the U.S. with sales of 27,526 units in July, a 1.2% increase over July 2014.

In Europe,the German company once again posted a new sales record with 457,468 vehicles sold in the first seven months of the year, a 11.3% increase. Sales in Germany of 156,569 units since the beginning of the year were above the prior-year level by 6%.

In the Asia-Pacific region, a new record level was reached through July with sales of 332,377 vehicles, up 23.5%. Growth in July was even stronger at a rate of 30.8% with sales of 47,838 units. In China, 29,540 vehicles were sold in July, representing an increase of 41.5% compared with the same month of last year.

July was another strong month for the compact cars of Mercedes-Benz, with sales of 49,973 units of the A- and B-Class, CLA, CLA Shooting Brake, and GLA , up 33.0%. The CLA set a new sales record in both July and the first seven months of the year.

Sales of the C-Class sedan and wagon increased last month by 83.1% to the record figure of 36,287 units.

Since the beginning of this year, 71,451 smart fortwo and smart forfour were sold, a 31.5% increase on a global level.