Mercedes reports new sales record in 2011

BERLIN (AP) — Daimler AG says its core Mercedes-Benz brand delivered a record number of cars in 2011 — a performance powered in part by strong sales increases in China and the United States.

The company said Friday that 1.26 million Mercedes vehicles were delivered worldwide in 2011 — an 8 percent increase. Sales in China were up 30.6 percent to 193,339 and U.S. deliveries climbed 13.3 percent to 245,231.

Daimler says Mercedes-Benz delivered 124,387 cars worldwide in December. That's a 15.1 percent increase over the last month of 2010.

Last month saw Chinese sales rise 29.5 percent and U.S. sales increase by 27.9 percent compared with the previous December.

Sales in Mercedes' home western European market sagged by 1 percent over the whole year. But in December, they saw a year-on-year increase of 7.1 percent.