Mercedes-Benz poised to become No. 2 luxury automaker?
Audi has a long-standing goal of becoming the world鈥檚 number one luxury automaker, and for the past few years it looked like the four-ring brand was well on its way to achieving this.
Last year, Audi sold just over 1.3 million vehicles worldwide, beating rival Mercedes-Benz (1.26 million) and closing the gap on BMW (1.38 million sales).聽 For Audi, that represented a 19.2-percent gain over the prior year, compared to 12.8-percent for BMW and a modest 8-percent for Mercedes Benz.
Now comes word from聽聽that Mercedes-Benz may overtake Audi for the number two position in 2015. Forecasts from the Center of Automotive Research at the University of Duisberg-Essen have BMW selling 1.76 million vehicles in 2015, followed by Mercedes Benz (1.68 million) and Audi (1.63 million).
How accurate any long-term forecasts are in the automotive industry is the subject of much debate, but Mercedes-Benz is clearly taking steps to combat sales gains by Audi. Over the next few years, Mercedes-Benz is launching a plethora of new global vehicles, primarily in the small car segment.
There鈥檚 the聽, a聽, the聽聽(smaller brother to the CLS 550) and even a new compact crossover called the GLA Class. Priced right, these models have the potential of boosting Mercedes-Benz鈥檚 sales above those of Audi聽 in the coming years.
Of course Audi isn鈥檛 standing idly by, either. Expect to see聽聽in the coming months, followed by a new聽. Then there鈥檚 the new A3 wagon to consider, which will be followed by an聽.
It may not be perfectly clear which company will take the sales lead in three years time, but this much is obvious: with so much new product to choose from, luxury car shoppers are the real winners.聽
