AUTOS

Mercedes Benz revs up sales outside home market

The Canadian Press Published Tuesday, February 5, 2013 12:24PM EST

In this April 7, 2009 file photo, the star emblem on the hood of a Mercedes-Benz car produced by Daimler is seen near Potsdam Square, Potsdamer Platz, in Berlin. (AP / Gero Breloer)

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BERLIN -- Automaker Mercedes-Benz says it sold 94,895 vehicles in January -- a year-on-year surge of 9.2 per cent.

The only place where sales of the German company's luxury cars dipped was at home, where sales dropped 0.7 per cent compared with January 2012.

By comparison, Mercedes says industry-wide sales fell 8.6 per cent during the month.

Mercedes said Tuesday it sold 24,783 cars in North America in January, nearly ten per cent more than a year earlier and twice as many as it delivered to customers in Germany during the same month. Sales in China grew more than 15 per cent to 16,695.

The subcompact Smart, which is counted separately, sold 7,285 units, down from 7,605 a year earlier.

Mercedes-Benz is the flagship division of Stuttgart-based Daimler AG, which also makes trucks and buses.