Tag Archives: luxury car sales drive

Mercedes luxury car sales drive faces speed bump in China

Shanghai, CHINA: A salesman walks past a Mercedes S-class sedan at a showroom in Shanghai after the firm announced a 57 percent increase in car sales in China and Hong Kong during the first four months of the year, 30 May 2006. Mercedes plans to invest 1.5 billion euros (1.8 billion USD) to produce cars in China, where a booming economy has created a growing class of 160 million 'luxury consumers', accounting for 13 percent of the country's total population, according to research by the semi-official China Brand Strategy Association. AFP PHOTO/Mark RALSTON (Photo credit should read MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images)

By Tom Mitchell in Beijing

When Daimler decided to post a board member to Beijing for the first time, it did so with a simple mandate: repair long-running operational problems at the German company’s Mercedes-Benz unit in China and close the gap with BMW and Volkswagen’s Audi.