The Mercedes-Benz E-Class is set to regain its former glory as the best-selling large luxury car in Australia with the launch of the updated version this month.
From January to the end of May this year, the outgoing E-Class has managed just 356 sales, outsold by the new BMW 5 Series (413) and even the Jaguar XF (363). This is in stark contrast to the same time last year when the E-Class was more than double the XF and more than 50 percent up on the 5 Series.
Speaking to CarAdvice at the local launch of the updated E-Class in Melbourne today, Horst von Sanden, managing director of Mercedes-Benz Australia, was optimistic about the E-Class’ position in market while emphasizing that Mercedes is not concerned about rival’s sales figures.
“We’ve always said that our plan is based on a strategy which we developed on certain volume planing, we are not so much interested in how much the other guys are selling.” von Sanden told CarAdvice.
The lower than average E-Class sales have been in large a result of the model’s runout phase.
“Based on lifecycle planning it was expected E-class sales would go down, we are always conscious when we order for the last year we rather run out four weeks earlier than [later].”
Asked if Mercedes-Benz Australia expects E-Class to regain its position at the top, von Sanden confirmed expectations that new E-Class would “certainly go up to where it was [last year] or higher”.
The new Mercedes-Benz E-Class starts from $79,990 for the base model E200 sedan and stretches all the way to $249,900 for the E63 AMG S, which arrives later in the year.
CarAdvice will have a full Australian-based review of the new E200, E250 and E250 CDI at 5pm tomorrow. In the mean time, you can read our Mercedes-Benz E-Class review from Europe earlier this year.
