Daimler races to record
January 4, 2013
Between January and December 2012, Daimler's passenger car division sold about 1.42 million vehicles, the Stuttgart-based German luxury carmaker said on Friday.
The figure represents an improvement on the previous company's best-ever sales record, which was for 2011.
The 2012 sales figure was 4.5 percent higher than in the previous year, as demand - notably for the firm's key Mercedes-Benz brand - jumped in overseas markets such as the United States and China, but also in Russia. Alongside Mercedes-Benz, Daimler manufactures top-of-the-range brands AMG and Maybach, and the smart city car.
"In spite of difficult market conditions in southern Europe, and a series of model changes, we were able to surpass record sales posted in 2011," said Daimler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche.
In 2012, sales of Daimler cars in the US market grew by 11.8 percent, outpacing for the first time the number of purchases in the firm's biggest market Germany, where sales dipped slightly last year.
CEO Dieter Zetsche said he expected the positive development of Daimler to continue throughout 2013, although meager sales growth of just 0.4 percent in December might herald the end of the company's series of record-setting years.
uhe/rc (dpa, Reuters)