German premium brands squeeze volume rivals in Europe, but will the rise last?
Reprints
Print
Respond
Germany's premium brands are defying Europe's economic crisis and increasing their vehicle sales in the region to such an extent that they are catching -- or passing -- sales of struggling volume brands.
In the first seven months, Audi outsold Fiat and Citroen in Europe.
Company executives and industry watchers say premium brands are benefiting from expanding into segments where they once had no presence, such as compact-sized cars.
Buyers are also willing to pay more for premium cars because they retain their value more than cheaper volume models.
Mercedes believes a key driver in its future growth is expanding the brand's compact car lineup to five models from two.
"The compact segment offers tremendous potential for growth," Mercedes product manager Gerd Sailer told Automotive News Europe. "The new compact models will play a major part in helping us to achieve our volume objective of 1.6 million vehicles by 2015."
The Global Monthly is published in PDF form and it can be customized, downloaded and read from a desktop computer, tablet or e-reader.
Backed by an international team of 50 editors and reporters, the Global Monthly offers a strong editorial voice from Automotive News Europe and its sister publications, Automotive News and Automotive News China.
Subscribers can customize their Global Monthly by adding additional articles or data tables in a PDF format from the archives of the Automotive News Group.
Click here for more
You can reach Nick Gibbs at nick.gibbs@btinternet.com.
