Mercedes 2012 Annual Report Download - page 73

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The Daimler Group
Daimler AG is the parent company of the Daimler Group and is
domiciled in Stuttgart (Mercedesstraße 137, 70327 Stuttgart,
Germany). The main business of the Company is the develop-
ment, production and distribution of cars, trucks and vans in
Germany and the management of the Daimler Group. In addi-
tion to Daimler AG, the Daimler Group includes all the subsidiaries
throughout the world in which Daimler AG has a direct or
indirect controlling interest. Through those companies, we con-
duct for example our business with buses and financial ser-
vices. The management reports for Daimler AG and for the
Daimler Group are combined in this management report.
Daimler can look back on a tradition covering more than 125
years, a tradition that extends back to Gottlieb Daimler and Carl
Benz, the inventors of the automobile, and features pioneering
achievements in automotive engineering. Today, the Daimler
Group is a globally leading vehicle manufacturer with an unpar-
alleled range of premium automobiles, trucks, vans and buses.
The product portfolio is completed with a range of tailored
automotive services.
With its strong brands, Daimler is active in nearly all the coun-
tries of the world. The Group has production facilities in a total
of 19 countries and approximately 8,000 sales centers world-
wide. The global networking of research and development
activities and of production and sales locations gives Daimler
considerable potential to enhance efficiency and gain advantages
in international competition, resulting in additional growth
opportunities. For example, we can apply our green drive tech-
nologies in a broad portfolio of vehicles while utilizing experience
and expertise from all parts of the Group. In the year 2012,
Daimler increased its revenue by 7% to €114.3 billion. The indi-
vidual divisions contributed to this total as follows: Mercedes-
Benz Cars 52%, Daimler Trucks 26%, Mercedes-Benz Vans 8%,
Daimler Buses 3% and Daimler Financial Services 11%. At the
end of 2012, Daimler employed a total workforce of more than
275,000 people worldwide.
The products supplied by the Mercedes-Benz Cars division
range from the high-quality small cars and innovative e-bikes
of the smart brand to the premium automobiles of the
Mercedes-Benz brand and to the Maybach luxury sedans. The
main country of manufacture is Germany, but the division
also has production facilities in the United States, China, France,
Hungary, South Africa, India, Vietnam and Indonesia. World-
wide, Mercedes-Benz Cars has 17 production sites at present.
In the context of extending our product range in the compact-
car segment, our new plant in Kecskemét, Hungary went into
operation in 2012 and the new B-Class has been produced
there since April. In the medium term, we anticipate significant
growth in worldwide demand for automobiles and above-
average growth in the premium car segment. To ensure that
we can participate in this development, we are creating
additional production capacities, especially in China, the United
States and India. The most important markets for Mercedes-Benz
Cars in 2012 were Germany with 20% of unit sales, the other
markets of Western Europe (24%), the United States (21%) and
China (14%).
As the biggest globally active manufacturer of trucks above
6 metric tons gross vehicle weight, Daimler Trucks develops and
produces vehicles in a global network under the brands
Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner, Western Star, Fuso and BharatBenz.
The division’s 27 production facilities are in the NAFTA region
(14, thereof 11 in the United States and 3 in Mexico), Europe
(7), Asia (3), South America (2) and Africa (1). In Juiz der Fora in
Brazil, the Mercedes-Benz Actros heavy-duty truck and the
medium-duty Accelo have been produced for the Latin American
market since early 2012. In our new truck plant in Chennai,
India, trucks of the new BharatBenz brand have been rolling
off the production lines since June 2012. By the year 2014, we
will produce 17 different BharatBenz models in India in weight
classes from 6 to 49 metric tons. In China, Beijing Foton
Daimler Automotive Co., Ltd. (BFDA), a joint venture with our
Chinese partner Beiqi Foton Motor Co., Ltd., has been producing
trucks under the Auman brand since July 2012. Daimler Trucks’
product range includes light, medium and heavy trucks for local
and long-distance deliveries and construction sites, as well as
special vehicles for municipal applications, the energy sector
and fire services. Due to close links in terms of production
technology, the division’s product range also includes the buses
of the Thomas Built Buses and Fuso brands. Daimler Trucks’
most important sales markets in 2012 were Asia with 35%
of unit sales, the NAFTA region (29%), Western Europe (13%)
and Latin America excluding Mexico (10%).
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