Daimler said first-quarter operating profit surged 41 percent on the effects of new model launches and record sales of Mercedes-Benz cars.Overall adjusted group earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) jumped to 2.93 billion euros ($3.19 billion), the company said in a statement today.
The return on sales from ongoing business at Mercedes-Benz Cars came in at 9.2 percent, up from 7 percent in the first quarter last year, lifted by record deliveries of its passenger cars. Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche has a goal for Mercedes, the world's third-biggest maker of luxury vehicles, to overtake premium-industry leaders BMW and Audi in sales by the end of the decade and boost profitability to 10 percent of revenue.
Daimler said record deliveries last month in Europe, China and the United States drove up quarterly passenger car sales to 459,708 models, exceeding last year's high by 18 percent.
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