Mercedes is the No. 1 premium carmaker in 2017

Mercedes remain the No. 1 premium carmaker in 2017 despite a very good result in December for BMW. Mercedes sold 200,000 more cars than BMW  and 400,000 more cars than Audi in 2017.

2017 was the most successful year of all time for Mercedes, with exactly 2,289,344 units (+9.9%) delivered and the seventh consecutive record year.

Never in the last 20 years, the advance in sales is so important for Mercedes. Mercedes sold 200,000 and 400,000 cars more than BMW, respectively Audi.

Sales by region

Mercedes was No1 premium carmaker in all three main regions – Europe, Asia-Pacific and NAFTA and registered the biggest growth in the premium segment with 9.9% compared with 4.20% at BMW and 0.60% at Audi.

In Europe, Mercedes sold 955,301 cars in 2017, making a 6.4% growth with over 300,000 cars being accounted by the home market.

BMW Group sold 1,100, 975 units in Europe in 2017 (+0.9%) but this figure include also Mini and RR.

Audi registered also an increase of 0.4% in Europe to a final result of 860,600 units.

Mercedes is the best selling brand also in Asia-Pacific region with 875,250 units. The Asia-Pacific region registered the biggest growth once again in 2017 with 19.20%, with a 25.90% for China.
Mercedes sold more cars in Asia-Pacific region than the whole BMW Group including BMW, Mini, RR which found 847,493 clients.

Audi is on third place, but the Ingolstadt based company communicate also figures for China: 597,866 units. With this figure, Audi was No 1 in China last year with few thousands of units ahead of BMW and Mercedes.

With a record of over 400,000 cars sold, Mercedes was No 1 premium carmaker in NAFTA region in 2017 while BMW Group sold 450,020 units including Mini and RR.

Audi is not so popular in USA with only 226,511 cars sold. The Dieselgate story has affected also Audi sales.

Sales by models

In 2017, more than a quarter of all Mercedes cars sold were compact cars. 620,000 customers worldwide choosen a car from the A-Class family.

But the best seller was the C-Class Saloon and Estate with over 415,000 cars sold. A quarter of them were the long wheelbase C-Class saloon, which is produced and sold only in China.

The new E-Class salon and Estate achieved and increase of 40% to more than 350,000 units.

The SUV models accounted more than one third of Mercedes cars sold with more than 805,000 units (+14%). The strongest selling SUVs in 2017 were the GLC and the GLA.

With twelve dream cars in its portfolio, Mercedes old nearly 170,000 such cars in 2017.

A huge success registered the AMG division with 131,970 cars sold which represent a sensational growth of 33%.

By comparison, BMW sold only 80,795 M cars in 2017.

BMW announced a top result for its electrified vehicles with 103,080 cars sold in 2017. Sales of the BMW i3 reached 31,482 units (+23.3%).

The models with the highest increase were the new BMW 5 Series with 291,856 units (+6.3%), BMW 1 Series with 201,968 units (+14.7%) and BMW 7 Series with 64,311 (+4.5%).

Mini registered the best result in history with 371,881 vehicles (+3.2%).

The global increase in demand for the Q models (+10.8% to around 689,150 cars) was a major factor in the growth for Audi in 2017. More than one third of Audi models sold were SUVs. The best selling Q model in Europe is the Q2.

Worldwide in 2017 the most successful Audi Q model was the Q5 with 281,850 units sold.

Last year, there was no other premium brand with so many new registrations in markets such as Germany, Great Britain, France, Turkey, Switzerland, Poland, Portugal, Denmark, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Taiwan, India, the USA, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. 955,301 cars stayed in Europe, marking a 6,4% growth, with 300,000 units being accounted by the home market, Germany. 875,250 cars made their way to the customers in the Asia-Pacific region. China stayed the biggest sales market worldwide, with 587,868 Mercedes-Benz automobiles handed over to customers last year.

430,320 Mercedes-Benz vehicles went to the NAFTA region from January to December 2017, with a growth especially strong in Canada (12.2%) and Mexico (21.9%). The USA got 340,000 cars last year.

The compact range, integrating the A, the B, the CLA, the CLA Shooting Brake and the GLA sold more than 620,000 units worldwide, with Germany and once again China accounting for most of them. Mercedes-Benz boasts a figure of 5,555,555 compact cars sold since the A-Class saw the light of day as a segment pioneer, in 1997.

The C-Class keeps its bestseller reputation, as more than 415,000 units of the saloon and of the estate were sold last year. About a quarter of them were the long-wheelbase version of the C-Class Saloon, which is produced and sold solely in China. The C was followed by the record-breaker E-Class, with more than 350,000 units delivered. Never before were more E-Class cars sold in one year than in 2017. China doubled the model sales last year, where most customers order the long-wheelbase variant, a model built there and only delivered in China and India.

Launched by the mid-2017, the new S-Class saloon convinced about 70,000 customers, while the super exclusive Mercedes-Maybach S-Class was the top priority for 25,000 well-heeled clients.

805,000 SUVs completed the passenger cars sales, with China, Germany, France, the US and Great Britain being the most willing to take them in, with the GLC, the GLC Coupe and the GLA being the family’s top favorites. 58,000 preferred the V-Class and the X-Class, the latter being the company’s latest creation and already being ordered in no less than 1,900 units. The tiniest member of the family, the smart, went to 135,000 drivers last year.

The Mercedes-AMG powerhouse kept its ground, selling more than 130,000 high-performance vehicles in 2017. 131,970 AMGs, to be more precise, were delivered to those in need for speed.