Mercedes-Benz has best yearly start with more than 193,000 sales

(February 6, 2018) STUTTGART, Germany — With a new sales record, Mercedes-Benz started the year 2018 as successfully as it concluded the previous year. In 2017, Mercedes-Benz defended its position as the bestselling premium brand, and the Stuttgart-based company continued to be the number one in important markets also this January.

In Germany, Great Britain, Portugal, South Korea, Australia, Taiwan, the U.S., Canada and Brazil for example, Mercedes-Benz maintained its leading position as the premium brand with the most new registrations.

January was highly successful worldwide with deliveries of 193,414 vehicles and growth of 8.4%. Mercedes-Benz made its best start to a year of all time, thus continuing seamlessly from its seventh consecutive record year.

“With more than 193,000 Mercedes-Benz cars sold in January, we achieved the most successful start to a year in the company’s history. And with the presentation of the new G-Class, we had an emotional start to the new year,” said Britta Seeger, member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG responsible for Mercedes-Benz Cars Marketing & Sales.

“I am delighted that we are setting standards not only with our unit sales, but also for example with the new smart configurator with real-time 3D car visualization. In this way, we are offering our customers an innovative platform upon which they can configure their future car.”

In the NAFTA region, 29,452 vehicles were delivered to customers, which is slightly lower than the record for a January that was set last year (-1.8%). A total of 25,307 cars were sold in the U.S., a decline of 0.9 percent. But Mercedes was once again the best-selling premium brand in the U.S.

Demand for the SUVs from Mercedes-Benz was as high as ever with an increase of 9.9%. A new record of 71,409 units sold was set. The GLC, GLC Coupé and G-Class all set new records for unit sales. The new G-Class had its world premiere at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January. Mercedes-Benz has so far delivered a total of five million SUVs to its customers, including two million of the GLE and its predecessor, the M-Class.

The new S-Class Saloon achieved a 25.3% sales increase to 8,130 units in January. The S-Class Saloon was particularly popular in its biggest markets, China and the U.S., achieving significant sales growth in both markets. The new S-Class Coupe and Cabriolet models were launched in Europe in January.

Last month, Mercedes-Benz delivered 33,063 of the E-Class Saloon and Estate models. This represents a 10.4% increase in unit sales and is a new record for a January. Mercedes-Benz has already sold more than 500,000 units of the new generation of the E-Class Saloon and Estate since April 2016.