Daimler AG, the maker of premium Mercedes-Benz luxury vehicles said it has already received 12,000 orders for its new generation S-Class luxury sedan in the last five weeks. The German automaker counts on its new flagship model which is the best-selling model among high-end sedans since it went on sale in 1972 to help the automaker to surpass BMW and VW’s Audi in sales and profit by the end of 2020.
Last month, Daimler sold 121,360 Mercedes-Benz vehicles globally up 7.3 percent more compared to May last year2. That was more than ever before in a single month, the Stuttgart-based carmaker announced. Year-to-date sales also are up 562,824 units sold until last month which shows an increase of 5.9 percent compared to the same period of 2012.
However Daimler’s first-quarter earnings fell 56 percent to 917 million euros, and total sales also contracted 3 percent to 26.1 billion euros. Now the company plans to save almost 2 billion euros ($2.67 billion) by the end of 2014.
Also the company intends to introduce 13 new models in the next eight-years to catch up the competition. The new S-Class will hit the market in July 20, 2013. The Stuttgart-based carmaker begun production on June 12 at its Sindelfingen plant in Germany being the only place in the world where Mercedes build the S-Class.
