Daimler wants its Mercedes-Benz brand to boost production by 13 percent next
year to more than 1.4 million passenger vehicles, according to internal
documents obtained by /Automotive News Europe/.
Mercedes plans to produce 1,417,400 passenger cars (excluding commercial
vehicles, Smart and Maybach) globally in 2012. The company sees total
passenger car output (including Smart and soon-to-be-phased-out Maybach)
rising to about 1.52 million next year and about 1.67 million in 2013. A
Daimler spokesman declined to comment on the targets.
In 2011, Mercedes expects to produce more than 1.25 million passenger cars,
concluding its 125th anniversary with a new record, according to statement
released earlier this month. Mercedes produced 1.2 million cars and SUVs in
2010.
"Mercedes-Benz is going on the attack," Daimler board member for
manufacturing and procurement Wolfgang Bernhard said in the release. "We are
securing our path to the top by extensively investing in the expansion of our
high-performance production network."
At Smart, Daimler expects to produce 99,212 units of the ForTwo minicar next
year, according to /Automotive News Europe/.
/You can reach *Harald Hamprecht* at *[email protected]* [1]./
[1] mailto:[email protected]