August auto sales up 22% at Mercedes-Benz

Daimler AG, the world’s second- biggest manufacturer of luxury cars, said sales at its Mercedes- Benz unit jumped 22 percent in August as the E-Class and S-Class models found buyers in China, Germany and the U.S.

Mercedes-Benz sold 81,000 cars and sport-utility vehicles, a 22 percent increase from a year earlier, Stuttgart, Germany- based Daimler said today in a statement. Eight-month deliveries gained 16 percent to 735,400 vehicles.

Daimler is trying to retake its top spot from Bayerische Motoren Werke AG while keeping Volkswagen AG’s Audi luxury division at bay. Sales in Germany, the carmaker’s biggest market, surged 17 percent, while the overall market contracted 27 percent. Sales in China more than doubled and in the U.S. they added 10 percent, according to the statement.

“The growth recorded by Mercedes-Benz in August marks a continuation of the current positive trend,” Joachim Schmidt, executive vice president sales and marketing, said in