Mercedes-Benz USA Q1 Passenger Cars Sales Rise, Vans Down; Stock Drops

(RTTNews) - Mercedes-Benz USA or MBUSA, affiliated to German luxury vehicle major Mercedes-Benz Group AG (MBGAF), reported Monday a 1 percent growth in sales of passenger cars, while van sales plunged from last year.

In Germany, Mercedes-Benz shares were losing around 3.5 percent to trade at 47.34 euros.

In the first quarter, the USA business sold 67,400 Passenger Cars, higher than 66,600 cars a year ago.

Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz Vans reported group sales of 7,700 units, down 52 percent from 16,100 units in the prior year, influenced by the planned discontinuation of the Metris. The eSprinter, the first fully electric van in North America, saw an increase of 253 percent.

In total, MBUSA sales were 75,100 vehicles for the first quarter of the year.

Group sales in the Plug-in Hybrid segment were up 400 percent from last year with wider availability of five long-range models, alongside Mercedes-AMG high-performance hybrids.

In the top-end, sales of Mercedes-AMG rose by 13 percent in the first quarter.

Sales of the Core GLC SUV and Coupe variants nearly doubled in the quarter. The Core segment overall saw an increase of 8 percent, further fueled by the performance of the E-Class Sedan.

Dimitris Psillakis, President and CEO of MBUSA said, "We closed Q1 in a very strong position for wholesale group sales and celebrated our best-ever March in MBUSA's history for retail sales."