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Volkswagen's flagship division Audi and BMW, the world's biggest
luxury carmaker, on Wednesday both posted single-digit gains in
Chinese deliveries, which are dwarfed by the 52 percent jump at
Mercedes reported last week.
Global sales at Audi, which slipped behind Mercedes last year
for the first time since 2010, rose 4 percent from year-ago
levels to a record 143,150 cars, the automaker said, powered by
redesigned versions of its top-selling A4 saloon and the
flagship Q7 SUV.
Munich-based BMW posted a 7.5 percent increase to 133,883 cars
at its core brand and predicted the "positive trend" to continue
through 2016 despite volatility in many markets such as Russia,
Brazil and China.
Mercedes, which has reported a 20 percent increase in January
sales to 150,814 cars, has benefited from surging demand for its
new C-Class midsized saloon and expects further tailwind this
year from the launch of a new E-Class model.
"Mercedes still has the strongest product momentum and should
come out on top of global sales rankings at the end of 2016,"
Hamburg-based M.M. Warburg analyst Marc-Rene Tonn said, citing
the brand's comeback in China.
(Reporting by Andreas Cremer; Editing by Maria Sheahan)
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