The story appears on

Page A12

April 20, 2011

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Business » Auto

Mercedes-Benz eyes on compact luxury cars

GERMAN luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz said it will focus on compact luxury vehicles in China as it drives to cement its leading market position in the world's largest auto market.

"We see additional growth in the compact segment, which we want to leverage with our new generation of compact cars plus the smart," said Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars.

"There is premier customer demand in the compact segment and we want to satisfy that demand in the best way possible," he pointed out.

The car maker offers an extensive display of 40 models from its four brands of Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-AMG, smart and Maybach in its nearly 3,000 square-meter booth at Auto Shanghai 2011.

Besides the Asia debut of the all-new CLS sports sedan and the new SLK roadster, visitors to the show will be able to get a sneak preview of its future luxury compact class with the much-anticipated world premiere of the Concept A-Class.

"It is very likely that one or two models of the next generation of Mercedes compact cars will be localized," Zetsche said.

He also said providing fuel-efficient and low-emission vehicles is core in the car maker's global strategy because of a worldwide trend toward new-energy vehicles. The car maker, which has introduced its S400 hybrid luxury sedans in China, is teaming up with China's BYD Co to develop an electric car in the country.

Mercedes-Benz remains the fastest-growing premium auto maker in China, posting sales of over 43,990 units during the first quarter of 2011, an annual increase of 86 percent.

In order to boost its presence, the premier car maker is on track to speed up its localization in China by investing 3 billion euros (US$4.3 billion) by 2015, to focus on capacity expansion and launching new products to the local market.

Zetsche said the car maker will boast an output of 300,000 units in China, the world's biggest auto market, by 2015.




 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend