Benz announced the target of being top 1 luxury brand

2015-07-02

With increased sales volume in China, Benz has announced the target of becoming the champion in luxury market again in 5 years. The NGCC factory of Beijing Benz for forward wheel drive cars will play an important role for this target. At the same time, BMW China is also making the plan for forward wheel drive cars, which will be a key model for the competition of luxury car brands.

Recently, the NGCC factory of Beijing Benz has been put into production, whose investment was 0.72 billion Euro. The capacity of Benz in China will reach 0.25 million in the end of this year. In fact, the target of being top 1 luxury brands in the world in 2020 had been proposed in as early as 2012 and China was the key important market for this target. The increased sales volume of Benz in China helps the repeat of this target.

From second half year of 2014, the growth of China luxury car market had decelerated. The sales volume growths of BMW and Audi also decelerated under this background. Last year, the sales volume of BMW in China was 0.455 million, increasing by 16.7% YoY, which was 3% less than 2013. The sales volume of Audi in China was 0.575 million, increasing by 17% YoY, which was 4.2% less than 2013. But the sales volume of Benz in China in 2014 was 0.282 million, increasing by 29% YoY.

In accordance with related data, the sales volume of Benz in the world was 1.462 million in 2013, which was 190,000 less than BMW and 114,000 less than Audi. In 2014, the sales volume of Benz increased to 1.65 million in the world, which was 160,000 less than BMW and 91,000 less than Audi. And in the first quarter of this year, the performance of Benz was still excellent. The sales volume of Beijing Benz was 49,000, increasing by 46% YoY. The sales volume of whole year was forecasted to reach 200,000, increasing by 37.45% YoY. The sales volume of Beijing Benz last year was only 145,500.