Auto News:BMW, Mercedes Benz Sales Drops Slow as Contraction Wanes

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz unit, the world’s top two luxury- vehicle makers, reported the slowest sales declines in at least eight months in a sign the worst market in decades is abating.

BMW, which also makes Mini and Rolls-Royce models, delivered 127,546 cars and sport-utility vehicles in June compared with 146,136 a year earlier, the Munich-based company said in a statement today. The 13 percent drop was the slowest since October. Sales of Mercedes-Benz models fell 5 percent to 100,300 vehicles, the smallest decrease since September, Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler said.

“The luxury carmakers are more of a true bellwether of underlying demand, because they haven’t benefited measurably from government incentives,” said Peter Kelly, senior director at J.D. Power Automotive Forecasting in Oxford, England. While discounts may have, the two carmakers’ sales numbers “suggest that the market may find a bottom in the second half.”

Government-funded rebates in Germany, France and Italy have helped stem car-sales declines after the recession led Europe’s auto market in 2008 to shrink by the most in 15 years. Deliveries in the region fell 4.9 percent in May, the slowest drop in 13 months, according to European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association figures.

BMW fell 15 cents, or 0.6 percent, to 25.48 euros in Frankfurt trading, the lowest price since May 29. Daimler declined 37 cents, or 1.5 percent, to a three-month low of 24.20 euros.

‘Favorable’ Incentive Effects

PSA Peugeot Citroen, Europe’s second-largest carmaker, said today that first-half global sales fell 14 percent. The incentives were “quite favorable for us” in attracting customers for the Paris-based company’s smaller cars, Citroen division Managing Director Frederic Banzet said.

Lower inventories of unsold cars and improving demand have helped Daimler and BMW increase production rates. Daimler, which is also the world’s largest truckmaker, has reduced the number of employees on short-time work to 47,000 from 60,000 at the end of April. BMW has cut the number of workers on reduced hours to 12,000 from 25,000 in March.

“There are first indications of a slight recovery on the automobile markets,” Ian Robertson, BMW’s sales chief, said in the statement. Introductions of the X1 SUV and 5-Series Gran Turismo crossover model “will give sales a further boost in the second half of the year.”

German, Chinese Growth

Sales by the BMW brand fell 13 percent to 105,220 vehicles, while Mini-division deliveries slipped 8.9 percent to 22,273. Rolls-Royce sold 53 cars in June compared with 114 a year earlier. Group sales increased in Germany, China, India and Brazil. Sales in the U.S. fell 20 percent.

Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz Cars group, which includes the two- seat Smart minicar, delivered 111,300 vehicles in June, a decline of 6.7 percent, limiting the drop in the first half to 19 percent. Smart-car sales fell 17 percent to 11,000. Group deliveries rose in China, Brazil and France, helping push inventories to their “lowest level in years,” Daimler said. Sales fell in Japan and the U.S.

“The development of sales in June exceeded our expectations,” Klaus Maier, Mercedes-Benz Cars’ top sales executive, said in Daimler’s statement. “We expect to see our sales stabilize in the second half of 2009.”
Source: bloomberg.com

Mercedes-Benz ESF 2009

2009 is a year in which Mercedes-Benz celebrates several anniversaries in the safety field: in August 1939 the safety pioneer Béla Barényi started his work in Sindelfingen. He invented for example the principle of the crumple zone, a trailblazing innovation which entered series production at Mercedes-Benz in 1959.

With the help of its in-house accident research function, which was founded in 1969, Mercedes engineers in the following years have developed several groundbreaking innovations in passenger car safety. Now it is time for a look behind the scenes, and in this anniversary year, Mercedes-Benz is using the ESF 2009 research vehicle to reveal what its safety spe-cialists are currently working on – with a time horizon that often extends well into the future. The ESF 2009 is the first Experimental Safety Vehicle to be built by Mercedes-Benz since 1974. Like its historic predecessors, it illustrates trail-blazing innovations in the field of safety and makes the progress achieved clearly visible.

These amazing but by no means crazy ideas include inflatable me-tallic sections which give more stability to structural components within frac-tions of a second, as well as the so-called “Braking Bag”. This airbag housed within the vehicle floor is deployed when a crash is deemed to be unavoidable, and uses a friction coating to support the vehicle against the road surface. The ESF 2009 will be premiered on 15 June 2009, at the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV) Conference in Stuttgart.

“Safety is a central element of the Mercedes-Benz brand. In this respect we have been setting the pace in the market for almost 70 years. For the benefit of our customers and for road users in general. The ESF 2009 shows that we still have plenty of ideas and the absolute will, to lead the automobile in-dustry in this field even in future”, says Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of Daimler AG and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Cars.

The ESF 2009 was developed and built completely in the test vehicle work-shops in Sindelfingen. This safety research vehicle based on the Mercedes S 400 HYBRID features more than a dozen safety innovations, most of which are fully functioning in demonstration mode. “With the ESF 2009, we have chosen this particular time to clearly demonstrate the innovative strength of Daimler. Anybody examining the ESF 2009 in detail will recog-nise that more safety and improved energy efficiency are not necessarily a contradiction in terms. We want to make progress in both fields with new, trailblazing ideas “, says Dr. Tho-mas Weber, the member of the Daimler Executive Board responsible for corpo-rate research and development at Mercedes-Benz Cars.

The following five innovations on the basis of the S 400 Hybrid are among the highlights of the ESF 2009:

PRE-SAFE Structure: The inflatable metal structures save weight or increase the stability of structural components. When at rest, the metal section is in a folded state to save space. If its protective effect is re-quired, a gas generator builds up an internal pressure of 10 to 20 bar within fractions of a second, causing the section to unfold for signifi-cantly more stability.

Braking Bag: This auxiliary brake accommodated in the vehicle floor is a new type of PRE-SAFE® component. If the sensor system con-cludes that an impact is unavoidable, the Braking Bag is deployed shortly before the crash and stabilises the car on the road surface by means of a friction coating. The vehicle’s vertical acceleration in-creases the friction, and helps to decelerate the vehicle before the im-pact occurs.

Interactive Vehicle Communication: The ESF 2009 is able to com-municate directly with other vehicles, or via relay stations. Using “ad hoc” networks and WLAN radio technology, it is e.g. able to receive and transmit warnings of bad weather or obstacles in the road.

PRE-SAFE Pulse: This further development of PRE-SAFE® is able to reduce the forces acting on the torsos of the occupants during a lateral collision by around one third. It does this by moving them towards the centre of the vehicle by up to 50 millimetres as a precautionary measure. As an ac-tive restraint system, it uses the air chambers in the side bolsters of the seat backrests.

Spotlight lighting function: This partial LED main beam specifically illuminates potential hazards. If the infrared camera of Night View As-sist PLUS e.g. detects deer at the roadside or pedestrians on the road, these can be briefly illuminated beyond the normal area covered by the main beams, as if by a spotlight.

Mercedes-Benz is also presenting an innovative PRE-SAFE Demonstrator at the 21st ESV Conference. For the first time this simulator uses a linear motor for this purpose, in order to accelerate the vehicle cabin to up to 16 km/h within a distance of four metres before the impact occurs. The linear drive system, which is similar to that used by the Transrapid train, is freely programmable and also works in the opposite direction. This enables various acceleration profiles and also a rear-end collision to be demonstrated.

The special feature of this sys-tem is that the ‘vehicle occupants’ experience the effect of the PRE-SAFE® functions live, e.g. belt pretensioning, NECK-PRO and the inflatable side bolsters of the seats. Mercedes-Benz is continuing a longstanding tradition with the ESF 2009: for the ESV Safety Conferences held in 1971 to 1975, the safety experts in Stuttgart built more than 30 experimental vehicles and subjected them to crash tests to satisfy the visionary safety requirements of that time. Four of these ESFs (Experimental Safety Vehicles) were presented to the public, and many of the revolutionary ideas such as ABS or the airbag first entered series production at Mercedes-Benz.

Wallpaper : Mercedes-Benz

Source : babez.de