Mercedes beats BMW in November, tightening US luxury-car race
Mercedes-Benz outsold BMW AG for a second consecutive month in November, making the U.S. sales race between the two German luxury rivals the closest it’s been since March.
Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz brand sold 33,721 cars and SUVs in November, surpassing BMW by 2,508 vehicles. A refreshed GLC midsize SUV was the top seller, while demand for its larger sibling, the GLE SUV, rose a whopping 52%. Total U.S. deliveries for the hyphenated nameplate climbed 8.7% last month.
BMW posted a 10.2% gain to 31,213 vehicles, its fourth consecutive monthly increase. Its 3-Series sedan led the way, with sales almost doubling to 6,283. The X3 and X5 crossover SUVs also posted big volume gains, as did the larger three-row X7 SUV.
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For the year, BMW’s lead over Mercedes narrowed to just 3,280 vehicles through the end of November.
The luxury leaders weren’t the only ones to grow sales at a healthy clip last month. Toyota Motor Corp.’s Lexus brand rose 14% to 30,093 vehicles, aided by demand for its RX and NX SUVs and ES entry-level sedan.
The Audi Q5 SUV paced sales at Volkswagen AG’s upscale Audi brand, which saw volumes grow 21% in the month. That spurt to 20,618 vehicles reflects weakness this time last year when Audi’s U.S. operations were hurt by a vehicle shortage.
To contact the reporter on this story: Gabrielle Coppola in New York at gcoppola@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chester Dawson at cdawson54@bloomberg.net, Melinda Grenier
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