Mercedes 2012 Annual Report Download - page 84

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3 | Management Report | Business and General Conditions
Daimler Trucks was able to increase its unit sales by 9% in
2012, although the market environment worsened significantly
in the second half of the year. In total, we shipped 462,000
heavy-, medium- and light-duty trucks as well as buses of the
Thomas Built Buses and Fuso brands, thus continuing as the
biggest producer of trucks above 6 metric tons gross vehicle
weight with a global reach.  3.07 This growth was primarily
driven by the NAFTA region and Asian markets, while unit sales
decreased slightly in Western Europe and significantly in Latin
America. Due to the sovereign-debt crisis and the resulting unwill-
ingness to buy, our unit sales in Western Europe decreased by
6% to 58,000 vehicles. But we performed well compared with
our competitors: We once again improved our market share
in the medium and heavy segments in the region of Western
Europe as well as in Germany, our domestic market, thus rein-
forcing our market leadership. In Latin America, the introduction
of stricter emission limits in Brazil, our main market, and the
weak state of the overall economy led to a sharp decrease in
unit sales to 46,200 vehicles (2011: 61,900).
In the NAFTA region, we achieved growth in unit sales of 18%
to 135,000 vehicles despite a considerably weaker second half
of the year. There was a positive impact from the high need
to replace older vehicles, but many truck customers postponed
their purchase decisions in the second half of the year due to
the worsened economic outlook. In total we increased our market
share in the NAFTA region for medium and heavy trucks of
Classes 6 to 8 to 34%, thus strengthening our leading competi-
tive position.  3.08
Business development
Unit sales. As previously announced, Daimler further increased
its unit sales in 2012. Sales of 2.2 million vehicles were 4 %
higher than in 2011. Mercedes-Benz Cars and Daimler Trucks
were responsible for the growth, while the Mercedes-Benz
Vans and Daimler Buses divisions did not match their unit sales
of the prior year.
The Mercedes-Benz Cars division continued along its growth
path in 2012 with a new unit-sales record of 1,451,600 vehicles
(2011: 1,381,400). The Mercedes-Benz brand also increased its
unit sales with growth of 5% to the new record of 1,345,800
vehicles. This allowed us to improve our position in numerous
markets. The S-Class sedans, the M-Class, the CLK and the
C-Class coupe are global leaders in their respective market
segments. As a result of our new and attractive SUV models,
our unit sales in the SUV segment grew by 16% to 295,400
vehicles. In the S-Class segment we achieved the previous year’s
level with sales of 80,700 units, and in the C-Class segment
we increased our unit sales by 3% to 425,000 units. For lifecycle
reasons, unit sales in the E-Class segment decreased to 313,600
vehicles (-8%). Despite the model change of the A-Class in Sep-
tember 2012, we increased our unit sales in the compact-car
segment by 20% to 231,100 vehicles. This was primarily due to
strong sales of the B-Class. The market launch of the new
A-Class was extremely successful. In fact, more than 70,000
orders had already been received by the time the model went
on sale in September 2012.  3.06
Despite a partially difficult market environment, we were able
to increase our unit sales in many markets. In Germany,
Mercedes-Benz defended its position as the most successful
premium brand with shipments of 261,100 vehicles (2011:
262,300). In Western Europe (excluding Germany), we were
able to improve our position in nearly all markets. Total unit
sales of 300,100 vehicles exceeded the prior-year level by
nearly 5% despite weak markets in the countries of Southern
Europe. In the United States, we set a new record with unit
sales of 289,300 vehicles (+17%). And in China, retail sales rose
by 1% to the new record of 196,200 vehicles. In order to opti-
mize the inventories of our Chinese sale partners, we reduced
unit sales, i.e. shipments to our dealer network, by 9%. Unit
sales of Mercedes-Benz cars were particularly dynamic in Japan
(+37%), Russia (+27%), Mexico (+27%), Switzerland (+23%) and
the United Kingdom (+20%).
We sold a total of 105,700 smart fortwo cars in 2012, an increase
of 6% compared with the prior year. The smart fortwo was
particularly successful in the United States, Canada, Japan and
China. E see pages 144 ff
Unit sales structure of Mercedes-Benz Cars
A-/B-Class 16%
C-/CLK-/SLK-Class 29%
E-/CLS-Class 22%
S-/CL-/SL-Class/SLR/SLS/Maybach 6%
M-/R-/GL-/GLK-/G-Class 20%
smart 7%
3.06
Unit sales structure of Daimler Trucks
Western Europe 13%
Latin America 10%
NAFTA 29%
Asia 35%
Rest of World 13%
3.07