Mercedes-Benz poised to topple BMW as world's luxury-car king

'Benz set to outsell BMW for the first time in a decade.

13 December 2016 Elisabeth Behrmann

Mercedes has sold more cars this year than BMW, both at home and abroad. Photo: Lucas Kennedy

Mercedes-Benz has built an all-but insurmountable lead over rival BMW in the race for the title of the world's biggest luxury-car brand, and that sales momentum looks set to continue through at least 2018.

Surging demand for sport utility vehicles including the GLC helped Mercedes deliveries jump 12 per cent in the 11 months through November, more than double the pace of growth for BMW. That left Mercedes more than 69,100 cars ahead of BMW for the period, making it all but certain of regaining the sales crown this year.

Relegating once-dominant BMW to the Number two rank for the first time in more than a decade, Mercedes is likely to sustain its strong delivery pace in 2017 thanks to a new version of the E-Class sedan rolled out last March. BMW will be held back by the changeover to a revamped 5-Series, which competes with the E-Class, while a new X3 SUV will come out too late next year to make much of an impact, said Commerzbank analyst Sascha Gommel.

Mercedes, owned by Stuttgart, Germany-based manufacturer Daimler, lost its worldwide lead in luxury-car sales to BMW in 2005, and later fell behind Audi. Daimler chief executive Dieter Zetsche is delivering early on a five-year-old pledge to retake the top spot by the end of the decade after adding all-new sport utility vehicles to the line-up and overhauling the staid look of its core sedans.

Growth at Mercedes will continue into 2018 as the brand's GLC SUV "is flying out the doors" and the C-Class sedan remains strong against BMW's aging 3-Series, according to analyst Ian Fletcher at IHS Automotive research company.

Audi's 11-month deliveries rose 4.2 per cent, and the marque lagged behind Mercedes by more than 179,700 vehicles, according to figures released on Monday. IHS is predicting Mercedes's lead over BMW next year at more than 110,000 cars, and almost 68,000 vehicles in 2018.

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Drive Comments

9 Comments

NewEra | 2016-12-13 05:04:45

And soon Tesla will topple them both. In 2015 in USA, Tesla Model S was #1 in the luxury large car segment, outselling the Mercedes S-Class, the BMW 7-Series, the BMW 6-Series, the Audi A7, the Audi A8, and the Porsche Panamera. Tesla sales grew 44% from 2014 to 2015, while Mercedes went backwards 13% and BMW went backwards 5%. It will be interesting to see the 2016 numbers early next year, since Tesla has kept growing, shipping over 60,000 cars in three quarters, more than double 2015 numbers.

Far Queue | 2016-12-13 07:19:12

battery cars Teslas pffft

Far Queue | 2016-12-13 07:19:14

battery cars Teslas pffft

The truth | 2016-12-13 12:06:03

BMW have always played second fiddle to Mercedes in terms of outright quality and ownership experience. I remember going way back to the early 80's, Sale ofthe Century used to feature Mercedes and Tony Barber was apparently very happy to keep his loan car. When BMW took over asain prize,IIRC Tony Barber handed his loaner 730i back after 6 months as it had spent about 4 months being serviced/fixed. He went back to his trusty Mercedes which he bought out after the Mercedes sponsorship of SOTC finished.

Roger Ng | 2016-12-13 19:38:11

While I'd love to see Tesla be number one the reality is that it's just too small and hasn't yet made a profit. I recently sold my 8 year old BMW 3 series and replaced it with a Merc. The BMW needed the diff changed at 60,000 kms ($5K) and again at 115,000kms. The aircon was replaced as were numerous other parts including the xenon headlights, the cooling system and many others too numerous to mention here. I was so happy to see the back of that car. My new merc is only 2 weeks old so I'll reserve judgement when it's travelled a few more kms. I've always been a fan of lexus but they appear to have lost their way as a value luxury manufacturer (if that's not an oxymoron). That mantle, in my view, has been overtaken by MB. Their current range of premium vehicles appears to be a cut above the rest (A, C, GLA, GLC to name a few). They also appear to be throwing a lot of features into their vehicles. Time will tell if the quality holds up.

Dale | 2016-12-13 20:09:38

Tesla sales of all models for this year in the USA total 24,475.

NewEra Dale | 2016-12-14 02:47:04

Dale - that's the number just for the 3rd Quarter not the whole year.

Sidney Mincing | 2016-12-13 23:19:36

I'd never have considered BMW to be anything more than a german camry. Boring, bland, characterless, and something that's easily lost in a carpark, whereas Benz has always had that certain air of opulence, of dignity, and look-a-me appearance that no other car can achieve. Then there's the Tesla which makes all other cars dinosaurs, regardless of cost