Top Luxury Carmaker For 2016 Revealed; Topples BMW

The main sales came from more than 700,000 SUV sales, another 425,000 from its sales of the popular C-Class family. The company sold more than 100,000 of the AMGs, Benz is claiming 2,038,888 sales for the calendar year 2016.

Mercedes-Benz has increased sales consecutively for the last six years and for the for the first time it has overtaken sales of BMW to be the world's number one luxury brand in 11 years.

BMW is yet to reveal its numbers for the last year nor has Audi, which was running a close third in the fight for the top of the global luxury car sales race.

The year 2016 has been a record salefor both Mercedes-Benz and BMW, but not as dramatic as Mercedes-Benz which registered sales of a massive 11.3 percent. The growth has been phenomenal for Mercedes-Benz.

Dr Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars said that with new cars with pioneering design that inspire their customers and with particularly strong growth from China and Europe, they have climbed to the top of the premium segment and they are accelerating further with new technologies, products and services.

The company had set itself a target of reaching the top of the rankings in the premium segment back in 2012 and has achieved the feat in four years. Back in 2012, the Mercedes-Benz was trailing not just behind BMW, but even Audi.

The main contribution came from anexplosion of new models, especially the MFA front/ all-wheel drive small car family and the dramatic expansion of its portfolio of SUVs. The year 2016 ended on a high with the best-ever sales coming in December 2016, the 46th consecutive record month and with the best quarter of all time.

Region wise, Europe saw the biggest sales for Mercedes-Benz with 900,000 units being sold in 2016. However, China was the biggest individual market growing at a faster pace of 26.6 percent and sales of 472,844 unit sales.

Considering China was a challenging market for Mercedes afew years ago, this turnaround is indeed significant. Another region which contributed heavily to the sales for Mercedes-Benz was Asia-Pacific. The company sold 734,169 units in Asia-Pacific region registering an increase in sales of 19.3 percent.