Mercedes 2015 Annual Report Download - page 76

B | COMBINED MANAGEMENT REPORT | ECONOMIC CONDITIONS AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT 83
Mercedes-Benz Vans once again achieved record unit sales
in the year 2015, surpassing the prior-year figure by 9% with
sales of 321,000 vehicles. Our Sprinter, Vito and Citan vans are
targeted mainly at commercial customers, while the V-Class
is designed primarily for private use. Unit sales in Western Europe,
our most important market, rose by 10% to 208,500 vans;
market leadership for mid-size and large vans was clearly
defended with a share of 18.4% (2014: 18.2%). Nearly all volume
markets contributed to this success, and in Germany we
achieved a new record of 88,400 vehicles (2014: 79,900). Despite
a difficult market environment due to the economic situation,
unit sales in Eastern Europe increased by 5% to 32,200 vehicles.
Our vans continued their success in the United States, where
we set a new record with sales of 32,400 units (2014: 25,800).
Our share of the market for large vans was 8.7% (2014: 8.9%).
In Latin America, we sold 15,800 vans, almost equaling the
number sold in the previous year despite the difficult economic
situation there. In China, sales decreased significantly to
7,200 units (2014: 12,800), mainly because of the upcoming
model change for the mid-size vans. Overall, we sold the
record number of 194,200 Sprinter vans worldwide in 2015
(+4%). The Vito achieved growth of 23% to 74,400 vehicles
and the V-Class multipurpose vehicle was also very successful
with sales of 30,700 vehicles (+20%). Sales of the Mercedes-
Benz Citan totaled 21,700 units (2014: 22,100). E pages 171 ff
Daimler Buses sold 28,100 buses and bus chassis worldwide in
2015. Compared with the previous year, this was a significant
decrease of 15%, but the division maintained its absolute market
leadership in our core markets in the segment for buses with a
gross vehicle weight above 8 tons. One positive aspect was the
ongoing strong demand for our complete buses in Western
Europe, where unit sales increased by 3% to 7,800 vehicles and
market share once again reached a very high level of 30.9%,
following the record level of 34.4% in 2014. In Germany, sales
of 2,800 units were 3% lower than in the previous year, which
was positively affected by unusually high demand for city buses
in the first half of 2014. In Latin America, we posted a significant
decrease in sales to 11,900 units (2014: 17,600). This devel-
opment was mainly due to the significant market slump caused
by the ongoing difficult economic situation, which particularly
affected Brazil, our most important market. Nonetheless, we
were able to strengthen significantly our leading market
position in Brazil with a market share of 52.5% (2014: 49.7%).
In Mexico, the number of 4,000 units sold was 9% higher
than in 2014. E pages 174 ff
Business at Daimler Financial Services developed very
positively in the year under review. As we had forecast in Annual
Report 2014, worldwide contract volume grew substantially,
reaching the new record level of €116.7 billion (+18%). Adjusted
for exchange rate effects, the increase amounted to 14%.
As expected, new business also increased significantly, by 21%
to €57.9 billion. Significant growth was achieved in Europe (+14%)
as well as in the Americas region (+21%) and in the Africa &
Asia-Pacific region (+39%). We achieved significant growth also
in the insurance business in 2015, brokering a total of 1.8 million
insurance policies, which is 25% more than in 2014. Daimler
Financial Services supported numerous companies with the
financing and management of their vehicles and fleets last year.
At the end of 2015, the division had a total of 310,000 contracts
with fleet customers in Europe (+1.5%). We further developed our
business with innovative mobility services in the year under
review. Our car-sharing service, car2go, had more than 1.2 million
users at 31 locations in Europe and North America by the end
of the year. This makes car2go the market leader in the area of
flexible short-term car rentals. We also further developed the
moovel app, with which customers in Germany can find the best
way of traveling from A to B using all modes of transport, and
can directly book and pay providers such as car2go, Flinkster,
mytaxi and Deutsche Bahn (German Railways). At the beginning
of the third quarter, RideScout, another Daimler-owned
mobility platform in North America, acquired the US startup
GlobeSherpa, an upcoming US provider in the field of
mobile ticketing. E pages 177 ff
Market share1
2015 2014 15/14
In %
Change in
% points
Mercedes-Benz Cars
Western Europe 6.0 5.5 +0.5
thereof Germany 10.1 9.7 +0.4
United States 2.0 2.1 -0.1
China 1.9 1.5 +0.4
Japan 1.6 1.3 +0.3
Daimler Trucks
Medium-duty and heavy-duty
trucks Western Europe
22.5
24.4
-1.9
thereof Germany 36.9 39.8 -2.9
Heavy-duty trucks NAFTA
region (Class 8)
39.3
35.9 +3.4
Medium-duty trucks NAFTA
region (Classes 6 and 7)
39.7
40.3
-0.6
Medium-duty and heavy-duty
trucks Brazil
26.7
25.8
+0.9
Trucks Japan 20.8 20.1 +0.7
Trucks Indonesia 48.0 47.4 +0.6
Medium-duty and heavy-duty
trucks India
7.3
6.2 +1.1
Mercedes-Benz Vans
Mid-size and large vans
Western Europe
18.4
18.2
+0.2
thereof Germany 27.1 26.5 +0.6
Small vans Western Europe 3.1 3.2 -0.1
Large vans USA 8.7 8.9 -0.2
Daimler Buses
Buses over 8 metric tons
Western Europe
30.9
34.4 -3.5
thereof Germany 49.3 57.1 -7.8
Buses over 8 metric tons Brazil 52.5 49.7 +2.8
1 Based on estimates in certain markets.
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