Daimler increased sales and revenues for the third quarter on its core Mercedes-Benz Luxury car brand thus narrowing the distance from top German automakers Audi and BMW.
The last time that the Stuttgart-based automaker claimed the highest position as the best-selling premium automaker in the world was 10 years ago and now it’s looking to go above BMW to be on the top rank again.
Mercedes-Benz stated that its profit margins went up to 8.6% for the latest quarter which shows a major increase compared to the 7.6% which was recorded in 2013 for the same time period. This is the highest profit margins that the automaker has posted in over 3 years now helping boost the operating profits of Daimler Group by 67%.
The positive results of Daimler Group’s efforts to be hailed as the best luxury car automaker in the world seem to start making an impact. According to Chief Financial Officer Bodo Uebber, the company is currently improving its production facilities and it will allocate 22 billion euros in total to invest on plants and equipment as well as on research and development.
Daimler will no longer focus on making large acquisitions but on strengthening its main business despite the latest windfall it enjoyed from the trade of a 4% stake in Tesla. The company has also made smaller acquisitions and one of them is in MV Agusta.
In 2013, BMW was awarded as the top luxury automaker in the world with 1.65 million cars sold followed by Audi with 1.5 million vehicles. Daimler came third with 1.47 million cars sold with the Mercedes-Benz brand.