BMW won the U.S. luxury-auto sales title for 2012 going away. But that was only the latest round in a three-way donnybrook among the German upscale car brands that likely will continue for many years, as Mercedes-Benz and Audi continue to vie with BMW for global domination in the most rarefied segment of the mainstream auto market.
BMW sales in the U.S. surged by 39 percent in December, powered by the popularity of its 5 Series car line (and, reportedly, by some tempting sales incentives). That was enough to vault BMW past Mercedes-Benz for all of 2012 by more than 7,000 vehicles in their race within a race. Things had been tight for most of the year, but at the end BMW gained a much larger victory than it won over Mercedes in 2011.
Both brands, however, already are looking over their rear fenders at a revived Lexus, which aims to take back in 2013 the sales title that it had won for 11 years straight through 2010.
Still, both BMW and Mercedes, along with Volkswagen Group's Audi brand, have their sights set on their performance on the global stage in 2013 and beyond. Overall, they're expected to remain within about 100,000 units of one another this year, each at around 1.5 million sales worldwide, according to projections by industry researcher IHS Automotive.
But BMW is given the early nod by IHS to strengthen its lead in 2013, with predicted global volume of about 1.54 million vehicles, up 4.6 percent; Mercedes is seen as growing to 1.46 million; and Audi to 1.44 million autos.
Daimler AG CEO Dieter Zetsche would like to put Mercedes in the top spot in the segment by 2020, he told a German newspaper. "I am confident that we will be ahead of our rivals by 2020 at the latest," he said, citing plans for cost-cutting and better performance in China as areas for the required improvement.
However, Audi has its own plans, with a commitment to spend $17 billion through 2016 to develop new cars and expand production capacity as it jockies with BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Audi's vision of 2020 is that it will be on top by then, as part of Volkswagen's overall goal of becoming the world's largest automaker by 2018.
The throne will be too small for any but one of the German brands to occupy it. The fact that they're all vying for it will make for an interesting race.
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