World September 2014: Mercedes > Audi, posts best-ever month
Mercedes C-Class
The Mercedes brand sold 162,746 vehicles worldwide in September, the best-ever month in its 88-year history and a 14 percent year-on-year increase. This enables Mercedes to pass Audi and rank #2 premium brand in the world below BMW for the month of September. Even though Audi sales are up 6% to 159,950 units, it wasn’t enough to resist Mercedes’ progression. Whereas Mercedes is benefitting from strong sales of its redesigned A, C, E and S Class as well as a great start for the GLA and CLA models, Audi has pushed its planned overhauls of the A4 and Q7 into 2015.
The A3 Sedan is enjoying a good start in the USA.
Audi has been the world’s No.2 premium automaker since 2011 when it overtook Mercedes, however its lead over the the Daimler division has thawed from 118,110 units a year ago to 103,494 in 2014. Automotive News Europe quoted Frankfurt-based Commerzbank analyst Sascha Gommel as saying “Mercedes will catch up further with BMW and Audi in coming months, they simply got the freshest product lineup.” Audi has a goal of boosting full-year sales to above 1.7 million vehicles from last year’s record 1.58 million, relying on momentum in China and Europe where it leads the premium segment, while Mercedes is simply targeting brand deliveries above last year’s record 1.46 million cars. Both brands are vying to snatch the global luxury-sales crown from BMW by the end of the decade.
BMW has sold over 10,000 “i” models worldwide, including 341 i8 (above)
September saw worldwide sales of BMW branded vehicles grow by 6.1% to a total of 167,584 vehicles, lifting the year-to-date total to 1.319.492 sales, up an excellent 9.1% on the same period last year. Good news: BMW graciously made available global sales by model for the first 9 months of 2014. The BMW 2 Series Convertible & Coupé total 19,941 sales, the BMW 3 Series is up 3.7% to 349,930 units, an incredible result given the arrival of the 4 Series at 81,876 sales. The 5 Series is up 2.8% to 278,479 sales and the X5 is up 34.2% to 104,997 units thanks to the new generation. Finally, a significant milestone: BMW i range sales now total 10,540 for the year to date with 10,199 BMW i3s and 341 BMW i8s sold. Note the i8 is sold out through the end of 2014 in the USA. Source: Manufacturers, Automotive News
This Post Has 4 Comments
@JackJohn
I’m talking about all the non-German premium brands. What is your problem with the French or the Italians? PSA and BMW, and also Renault and Mercedes have developed engines and technologies together, so your point makes nonsense.
In regards to FIAT-Alfa Romeo, i love the Giulietta and the 1.6 Mjet 120hp engine is much better than the weak VW 1.6 Tdi.
It’s because people that think wrongly like you that the Germans have so much profits and the non-German European companies have nothing.
@Bryan
The only other comparable european brand I can think of is Volvo, maybe Jaguar in some segments. I hope you’re not talking about french or italian…
I really do not understand the love affair of the market by the premium German brands. There are a lot of car manufacturers from Europe and Japan that make also great cars, but unfortunately people tend to be like sheeps and are unable to make their own choices. People are thrilled with the false marketing of the “made in Germany” superior high superb glorious magnificient majestic imperial quality and superior everything only because is made in Germany. That’s very sad because the non-German engineers and companies are not properly valued.
That is so strange. Audi is making more and more crap cars (last recall about 850.000 A4) but selling more…