Mercedes-Benz Achieves Best May Sales Figure in its History

• Dr. Joachim Schmidt: "The upswing we've experienced in recent months continued in May with a new sales record. Once again, growth was in particular driven by the BRIC countries. We achieved high growth rates in all of them."

• "Beginning in fall, the pace of our growth will be further increased by the new M-Class, which will help us reach our goal of making 2011 the best year in our company's history. We want to sell more than 1.3 million Mercedes-Benz cars and smart fortwo overall."

• The new generation of the C-Class sedan and the S-Class sedan are once again the market leaders

• smart sales continued to rise in May

In May, Mercedes-Benz sold more vehicles than ever before in this month. The brand delivered a total of 108,766 passenger vehicles (May 2010: 101,359) to customers worldwide. Deliveries thus rose by 7.3 percent compared to the high volume recorded in the same month last year. Since January, 490,021 customers (January-May 2010: 443,394) have decided to buy a Mercedes-Benz brand vehicle, resulting in an increase of 10.5 percent.

Dr. Joachim Schmidt, Executive Vice President Sales and Marketing Mercedes-Benz Cars: "The upswing we've experienced in recent months continued in May with a new sales record. Once again, growth was in particular driven by the BRIC countries. We achieved high growth rates in all of them. The strong demand for our new C-Class generation is also contributing to our dynamic development. This will also be the case with the new C-Class coupe, which hit dealerships last Saturday and has already met with an outstanding customer response."

In the course of the year Mercedes-Benz will introduce additional new models to the market, including the new M-Class, which will celebrate its world premiere this week. Sales of the vehicle will start in Europe on July 11, and the first units will be delivered to customers in fall this year. Dr. Schmidt added, "Beginning in fall, the pace of our growth will be further increased by the new M-Class, which will help us reach our goal of making 2011 the best year in our company's history. We want to sell more than 1.3 million Mercedes-Benz cars and smart fortwo overall."

Mercedes-Benz substantially increased sales in many markets in May. Sales in China (including Hong Kong) were once again at a record level, amounting to 16,401 units (May 2010: 11,463) and representing a 43.1 percent increase on the high sales volume achieved in the same month of last year. Since the beginning of the year, passenger car sales have thus risen by 62.0 percent to 75,896 units (January - May 2010: 46,844), which is also a new all-time high. The pace was similarly dynamic in the other BRIC countries. Mercedes-Benz surpassed its previous sales records of May in both India (plus 39.8 percent) and Russia (plus 49.2 percent). This was also achieved in South Korea (plus 29.1 percent) and Taiwan (plus 37.0 percent). High growth rates were also recorded in Brazil (plus 55.9 percent) and Turkey (plus 49.9 percent).

Mercedes-Benz delivered 18,886 vehicles to customers in the U.S. in May, an increase of 1.8 percent on the same month last year (May 2010: 18,548). During the first five months as a whole, deliveries totaled 90,274 units (January – May 2010: 85,405), an increase of 5.7 percent on the same period last year. Mercedes-Benz Canada delivered a record-breaking total of 3,052 units to customers (plus 11.0 percent) in May, which represents the best ever sales result for a month. Also the year-to-date growth brings a record with 11,715 units (January – May 2010: 11,535).

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