Not to be outdone by other automakers that have also gone to China to sell their wares, Mercedes-Benz announced that its business in China “exploded by 40%” (a total of 28,200 units sold) in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2008.

Ulrich Walker, Daimler Northeast Asia CEO, believes that it must have something to do with the expansion of China’s middle class. Daimler has more plans for the market. Daimler expects its sales to hit new record numbers in the coming months, as the company has just released onto the Chinese market the new E-Klasse sedan, bringing the total number of Daimler models to 40, from 16 different classes. It expects even more from the S 400 hybrid that it will bring there later this year. Already, the all-new E class has posted 6,000 pre-orders. The Auto Finance arm of Mercedes Benz currently reaches 100 markets in China, with a national average finance penetration of a little over 10%. From a year ago, Auto Finance’s portfolio doubled, reaching 420 million euro.

Tags: car news, mercedes china record sales, mercedes-benz china sales, mercedes-benz news

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 30th, 2009 at 7:06 pm and is filed under 2009, 4wheels News, Asia, Automakers, Mercedes-Benz, Year, Zone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.