Mercedes-Benz Malaysia eyes another record year

PETALING JAYA: Mercedes-Benz Malaysia (MBM), which bucked industry trend and posted its best ever sales in 2015, aims to continue its record-breaking feat this year.
MBM, a joint venture between Daimler AG and Cycle & Carriage Bintang Bhd, sold 10,845 units in 2015, up 56% from 6,932 in the year before. Its vice-president (passenger cars) Mark Raine, said the company, which improved its market share by 0.7% to 1.9% last year, will maintain the momentum in 2016 and continue to be the leader in premium car segment in the country.
In 2015, MBM introduced 14 variants and moving forward will launch its compact, limousines and dream cars segment throughout the year, especially in the first six months.
"The company targets 2016 to be as successful as last year and to retain and expand leadership position in the premium car market in Malaysia.
"We are confident of achieving this by carrying out last year's momentum and leverage on our customers' confidence on our vehicles and brand, and continue extensive emphasis on our local partners which we had heavily invested in to drive best services to our customers, " he told the press at a briefing on the group's 2015 performance here last Friday. Also present was MBM's president and CEO Claus Weidner.
The German marquee achieved its best ever sales month in June and best quarter in the second three months of 2015.
Leading the sales chart last year were its locally produced A-Class to the brand's leading S-Class, with locally-produced limousines, which registered a growth of 75%.
"A total of 7,989 units of locally-produced vehicles were sold last year, a 75% increase, with diesel hybrid, the E-Class, taking the top spot with 3,383 units. This was followed by the C-Class (2,697 units) and S400L (1,909 units)," said Raine, adding that the S400L hybrid sales surged 201% to 1,909 units.
MBM's compact vehicles also continued to maintain steady sales growth, up 21% to 2,811 units, with the CLA models topping the sales with 959 units followed by the A-Class (832 units) and GLA (816 units).
Raine said at the heart of the MBM's success has been the Pekan production plant and its strong service and dealer network.
The plant managed to produce 7,710 cars last year and was crowned as the first and only completely knocked down plant to successfully implement a two-shift production.