Mercedes-Benz Malaysia records 22 percent year-on-year quarterly growth
Mercedes-Benz Malaysia’s sales numbers for in recent times do not make for pleasant reading as the perennial premium vehicle market leader saw its sales crown usurped by arch-rivals BMW for two successive years. The Stuttgart brand seeks to reclaim that advantage and has come flying off the blocks in 2014 with 2,233 vehicles sold in the first quarter of this year.
Declining sales of its passenger cars have been arrested and- convincingly reversed with a emphatic 38% increase to 1,676 units from 1,211 units managed during the same period in 2013. Biggest growth was registered by the facelifted W212 E-Class, which enjoyed a 60% year-to-date growth.
“We are very pleased with the overall improved performance this quarter. Both the new A-Class which was launched in June last year, and E-Class which was launched in August, continue to experience strong growth. This is testament of the market’s confidence not only in the Mercedes-Benz brand and product quality, but also the excellent after sales support offered by our nationwide network,” remarked Mercedes-Benz Malaysia President and CEO, Roland Folger.
Moving forward, Folger has confirmed that several new passenger models will be added to the line-up in the coming months to join the all-new W222 S-Class and CLA-Class already launched this year. A new Autohaus, which is claimed to set a new Southeast Asian benchmark, will open soon to join a network that already consists of 32 dealers and 29 service centres across the country. The company claims that these centres have a combined capacity to service 600 vehicles a day nationwide.
“We are also well prepared for the expected increase in vehicle throughput to fulfil our obligations to our customers who purchased our vehicles with our Four-Year Extended Warranty Programme which comes into force this year,” Folger added.
In the commercial vehicle side of its business, Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles experienced a marginal 9% decrease from 34 units in Q1 2013 to 31 units; while Mitsubishi Fuso registered 526 units in Q1 2014, down 10 per cent from 582 units registered during the same period last year.
Pictures: Official Mercedes-Benz release.
