By Amechi Obiakpu
Mercedes-Benz reported a remarkable increase in sales in the month of May 2016.
The German auto said in a statement that unit sales increased by 12.9% amounting to 170,625 vehicles. It said that in January through May, 2016, 818,175 vehicles with the three-pointed star were delivered to customers (+12.3%), more than ever before in the first five months of a year.
The Stuttgart-based company achieved record unit sales in each of Europe and Asia-Pacific last month. Mercedes-Benz was the market leader in the USA, Japan, Canada, Australia and Taiwan.
“Our double-digit growth in Europe and Asia-Pacific made a major contribution to the strong unit sales of Mercedes-Benz in May,” said Ola Källenius, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG, responsible for Mercedes-Benz Cars Marketing & Sales.
In Europe, sales increased by 14.2% yielding a sale of 74,268 units in May while there was a 24.2% increase in the Asia-Pacific region with a total of 57,438 vehicles handed over to customers in May.
The increase, according to the company was primarily due to double-digit growth in the major markets of Great Britain, Italy, Spain and Belgium.
In Germany, the domestic market, 23,343 vehicles were delivered to customers (+4.9%).
Also, in China, Mercedes-Benz achieved a new record of more than 38,000 vehicles sold (+38.9%) while the company’s leadership was continued in Australia, Japan and Taiwan. In the NAFTA region, 34,323 units of Mercedes-Benz models were sold with 29,299 of those automobiles delivered to customers in the USA thus maintaining the market leader status among the premium manufacturers in May.
