What's the news?
Mercedes is having a monster year in terms of sales, recording its best-ever half-year figures for the first six months of 2016 (shifting a little over a million cars worldwide) and now turning in an epic July to boot.
Kicking off quarter three in style, Mercedes-Benz sold 163,770 vehicles in the month, an all-time high and a 9.4 per cent increase on the same four-and-a-bit weeks in 2015. That brings the total number of Mercs sold in 2016 to this point to 1,170,389, an 11.7 per cent increase on the first seven months of 2015.
The German company saw robust sales growth in all the major regions of the world, including Asia-Pacific and the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) zone, but let's drill down into the European numbers. Unit sales across our continent went up 6.2 per cent in July compared to 2015 to a total of 68,990. In fact, in its biggest sales region, Mercedes has shifted more than half a million vehicles (+12.3 per cent on the same period in 2015) here alone. Perhaps unsurprisingly, despite strong performances from east to west, it is in Germany where the company proves most popular: 167,299 Mercedes products have found homes in the first seven months of 2016 (+6.9 per cent compared to 2015).
Mercedes cites the new E-Class Saloon and Estate models as being among its best-sellers, while 56,297 SUVs were sold globally in July (+43.6 per cent on July 2015) - the GLC being the main driver of this growth. Stuttgart also revelled in the fact it shifted 12,000 of its 'Dream Cars' in July, these being the coupés, roadsters and convertibles which it is heavily promoting this year. This is a 19.6 per cent rise on July 2015, with the C-Class Coupé and S-Class Cabriolet proving the main attractions.
Good news, too, for Mercedes' city car spin-off brand Smart, which also increased its unit sales by 13.8 per cent in July, delivering more than 10,000 cars to its customers around the world. China, surprisingly, loves the Smart range, with sales tripling in the last month. The arrival of the new Smart Brabus should also bolster the numbers for the remainder of the year, so things are looking rosy for the marque... which we still don't get in Ireland. Ah.
Anything else?
Ola Källenius, Daimler AG board member responsible for Mercedes-Benz Cars Marketing and Sales, said: "The year of the E-Class and the Dream Cars has been progressing very successfully for us. The new E-Class Saloon is extremely popular with our customers. And we delivered around 12,000 of the Dream Cars to our customers in July. Our new models are strengthening the Mercedes-Benz brand while further rejuvenating the product range."