The battle gets more fierce between Audi, BMW and Mercedes to be crowned as the top luxury carmaker in the world. In 2011, Volkswagen owned Audi brand was able to slip past Mercedes-Benz to claim the title of world’s second largest luxury carmaker. However, new reports suggest that Mercedes could be back, and tougher this time, to win back the title of world’s second largest luxury auto maker.
According to a new report conducted by the Center of Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany, Mercedes-Benz will reclaim its title from Audi as world’s second largest luxury carmaker by 2015. Moreover, BMW will continue dominating the luxury car segment and holding the crown for world’s best-selling luxury car brand. The reports were published in Germany’s Handelsblatt.
In terms of figures, Mercedes-Benz is expected to sell 1.68 million vehicles in 2015, while the local rival Audi is expected to hit 1.63 million sales figure. BMW will hold its position as best-selling luxury car brand with 1.76 million sales figure.
In 2011, the brand with four rings registered 1.3 million units sold, thrashing Mercedes by 4,000 units. It registered 1.26 million units sold in 2011. Mercedes-Benz has been holding on to the number two spot since 2005.
Mercedes-Benz has plans to full-fledged development of its passenger car lineup by 2015. It plans to launch 10 new models in the market by 2015, including the sporty A-Class and five models based on the MFA platform. However, Audi is not going down without a fight and targets annual sale of 2 million units by 2020.