China demand drives surge in Mercedes sales

Daimler AG says its core Mercedes-Benz brand delivered a record number of cars in 2011 – a performance powered in part by strong sales increases in China and the United States.

The company said that 1.26 million Mercedes vehicles were delivered worldwide in 2011 – an 8% increase. Sales in China were up 30.6% to 193,339 and US deliveries climbed 13.3% to 245,231.

Mercedes-Benz delivered 124,387 cars worldwide in December, a 15.1% increase over the last month of 2010.

Last month saw Chinese sales rise 29.5% and US sales increase by 27.9% compared with the previous December.

Sales in Mercedes’ home western European market fell by 1% over the whole year. But in December, they saw a year-on-year increase of 7.1%