BMW, Daimler See July Deliveries Decline

Germany's Daimler AG and BMW AG said Friday that their worldwide car sales fell by more than 10 percent in July as the global economic downturn curbed demand for luxury autos.

The BMW group, which includes the Mini and Rolls Royce brands too, reported a 13 percent year-on-year drop in cars delivered to 110,000 from 126,000 in July 2008.

Daimler's Mercedes-Benz car division, whose brands also include Smart and Maybach, saw an 11 percent drop, with deliveries falling to 93,900 cars from 105,100. The core Mercedes-Benz brand accounted for most of those sales despite a 10 percent fall in deliveries to 83,500 cars last month from 92,700 a year earlier.

Sales of Smart compact cars declined particularly sharply in July, falling 16 percent to 10,400.

Daimler said that, despite difficult market conditions, its new Mercedes E-class sedan was being well received.

"We have delivered more than 40,000 units to customers since the market launch in spring," Klaus Maier, a Daimler sales and marketing official said.

Daimler also said Germany and other key European markets were beginning to show signs of sales stabilization, and that positive sales momentum would come in future from new, highly efficient and high-volume engine variants, such as the C-Class.

Rival BMW said sales at its main BMW brand declined 15 percent last month to 90,597 cars from 106,466 in July 2008.

Only the Mini brand was able to post a slight increase. Its deliveries edged up 0.3 percent to 19,281 from 19,224.

Rolls Royce deliveries dropped by 56 percent to 45 cars, while BMW's motorcycles division saw deliveries fall more than 10 percent to 9,604.

BMW said it expected sales to show some improvement in the coming months with the launch of new models.

"I am confident we will continue to expand out market position in the premium segment for 2009 as a whole, and be able to maintain our position as leading premium manufacturer," said Ian Robertson, a BMW sales and marketing official.