MERCEDES-Benz Middle East & Levant posted best monthly sales results ever for the month of May, and a 49 percent increase over the same January to May period in 2011. Regional sales highlights include Bahrain up 85 percent, Oman up 44 percent, Saudi Arabia up 31 percent, Kuwait up 27 percent, Abu Dhabi up 19 percent and Dubai up 13 percent. 2012 marks the 60th anniversary of the lightweight, athletic and luxurious Mercedes-Benz SL Roadster. With its sporty wheels hitting the region's tarmac in June, sales for the latest aluminum-body version of the 'super-light' are now underway across the Mercedes-Benz Middle East and Levant general distributor network. Mercedes-AMG also celebrates a milestone, passing 45 years since Hans Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher founded the famous brand back in 1967. The March launch of the all new M-Class pairing performance with sophistication has spearheaded Mercedes-Benz SUV growth, key to expanding market share for the company in 2012. With an increase of 56 percent in sales, the new M-Class has already laid a very strong foundation of success for Mercedes-Benz' 'Year of the SUV' 2012 strategy. The top of the range "S-Class of SUVs" GL also performed well for Mercedes-Benz off-road vehicle range sales, increasing 34 percent while the perennial G-Class continued to bolster its iconic status with a further 11 percent increase. SUV sales will be spurred by the recent GLK and flagship GL model launches later this year. Affalterbach's Mercedes-AMG performance division year to date sales accelerated by 28 percent versus 2011, showcasing the success of the "Year of AMG" strategy. The boost was largely driven by new models including the CLS 63 AMG and the fiery C 63 AMG Coupe, feeding customer cravings for the daily dose of adrenalin delivered by AMG. New models in the market, the athletic and sporty SLK 55 AMG, dual-personality E 63 AMG and 525hp, zero to 100 km/h in 4.7 seconds ML 63 AMG have made the Mercedes-AMG line up all the more intoxicating for customers, making their fearsome presence felt in overall AMG sales. Beyond AMG and SUV, Mercedes-Benz saloons contributed strongly to year to date sales lead by the sporty and powerful new generation C-Class, up 19 percent, and the luxury executive saloon segment leading E-Class, up 20 percent. Frank Bernthaler, Director, Sales and Marketing, Mercedes-Benz Cars, Middle East & Levant, said: "Our two pronged SUV and AMG sales strategy has proved to be highly effective in growing market share. With the all new M-Class creating the success we planned for and further SUV and AMG models in showrooms soon, we expect to continue to see sales figures race skywards towards our push for a record year, even through the blistering summer months." – SG
