MBUSA New Chief Not Yet Chosen

Image via CrunchBaseErnst Lieb, former CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA, was quickly fired. Yet, until now, his replacement has not been found.

One reason, according to reports is that Lieb has been very effective in his post before that it is difficult to find someone as good and as “loveable” as him. Apparently, dealerships in America really liked Lieb's leadership. The second reason is that the candidates for the position all include Mercedes-Benz executives from other countries, they are also performing really well where they are right now, so it would be very difficult to get them out of their current posts because that place maybe affected. Apparently, the contenders for the post are from Canada, Turkey, China, Australia and England.

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Los Angeles Design Challenge: Daimler's Entries

The Los Angeles Design Challenge is a design contest for industries to showcase their ingenuity and creativity. And of course, Mercedes-Benz will not be left behind.

Here are some pictures grabbed from Benzinsider.com:

The smart Parkour : The car that can climb skyscrapers and fly.


Maybach Berline: Car based on the 17th century coaches but with gull-wing doors!


And finally, the Mercedes-Benz Silver arrow!

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Ernst Lieb Ousted as MBUSA Chief

News surfaced last week that the “charismatic” CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA, Ernst Lieb, was replaced. When it was first reported, there was no reason, it was just noted that a temporary replacement in the person of Herbert Werner, MBUSA Finance Head, will sit on his post.
Image via CrunchBase
However, just a few days ago, Wall Street Journal reported that according to “people familiar with the matter”, Lieb was removed from his post due to financial misdeed. This is after questions surfaced because of the purchase of his home near the MBUSA's headquarters, as well as a personal flight to Australia he took, in which the company paid for.

Even if Mercedes gained sales and market share during his tenure, it was done because the company is being very careful and attentive to corruption practices.
Despite all this, it seems that Lieb is one-of-a-kind because MBUSA is still trying to find for the new CEO to fill in his shoes, someone who has great understanding of the country's market and the company's dealer network there, like him.

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Lyon France- The Next car2go Destination

Following the success of car2go in Canada, US and Germany, the carsharing service will expand in Lyon, France in 2012. No exact date of when this will happen, but it will surely be well-received by the French for its convenience.

Lyon - Following the successful launch of the car2go mobility service in the German city of Hamburg, car2go GmbH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Daimler AG, and Europcar, the leader in car-rental services in Europe, announced today that within a few weeks, Lyon will become the first French city to enjoy the benefits of the unique car2go mobility programme.

Starting in 2012, car2go will provide Lyon residents with a fleet of 200 low-emission, self-service smart fortwo cars which will be available for “on-demand” rentals throughout the city. Members can easily locate the closest available vehicle within a defined operating area of 44 square kilometres via the internet at www.car2go.com or with the help of a smartphone application. They can rent a vehicle spontaneously without the need to reserve it in advance. car2go allows its members to use the vehicle for as long as they like, without committing to a specific return time or location. Members pay only for the time they usethe vehicle, with rental periods as short as one minute. More than 45,000 people in Germany, USA and Canada have already become members of car2go, the world’s first one-way carsharing service.

“Innovative urban mobility solutions like car2go offer a way to help meet the challenges of urban congestion, reducing carbon emissions and improving quality of life,” said Gérard Collomb, Mayor of Lyon and President of ”‘Grand Lyon”. “Following the actions we initiated in 2005 with Velo’v, the first self-service bike sharing system, Lyon is innovating again with car2go, a new approach to car sharing which is complementary to other initiatives enabling our residents to move around town. Choosing Lyon, Europcar and Daimler strengthen the role of our city being one of the European leaders in terms of sustainable mobility.”

“This roll-out marks an important step of car2go into the European market and we are proud to name Lyon the first home of car2go in France,” said Robert Henrich, CEO of car2go GmbH. “The overwhelming success in Germany and North America shows that car2go offers what people are searching for: a very convenient and flexible mobility solution for short and spontaneous one-way trips.”

car2go complements the existing transportation infrastructure in dense urban areas and aims to reduce the burden on city-center traffic, parking and the environment by using the smart fortwo “car2go edition”. The vehicle has been specially developed for the purpose of carsharing and is manufactured at the smart plant in Hambach, France.

Unlimited mobility

The idea of car2go was born at the Business Innovation Department of Daimler AG. Today, with a total of more than 45,000 members and 1,100 vehicles worldwide, car2go has proven success in four cities: Ulm and Hamburg in Germany, the Texan capital Austin in the US and Vancouver in Canada. Since the first launch in the southern German city of Ulm in March 2009, more than 900,000 trips have been made and approximately 9 million kilometres have been covered. Experience shows that customers highly value the possibility to do one-way trips. Nine out of ten car2go rentals end at a different location than where they began, further showcasing that customers value the car2go model of point-to-point mobility.

After successfully launching car2go in Hamburg, car2go and Europcar will continue their strong partnership in Lyon.

“Together with car2go, we are providing innovative mobility solutions to serve urban communities and reach new categories of customers,” said Phillipe Guillemot, CEO of Europcar International. “For more than 80 years, Europcar has been building the expertise and strong market positions that have established it as the undisputed European leader in car rental services. Through this partnership with Daimler, we are exploring new ways to combine urban mobility services with short term car rental services, to provide comprehensive mobility solutions to urban customers.

Source: Daimler AG

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Mercedes' Move to Revive Smart's Sales

In an attempt to increase the sales of the Smart brand, Mercedes-Benz made a move. First, create a new executive team which is called Daimler Vehicle Innovations USA, which is led by Tracey Matura. Matura was the general manager of Mercedes-Benz strategic retail development group before being asked to take on the new team that will revive smart.

The first thing the new team is doing is to incorporate smart cars in Mercedes' showrooms. Taking the top spot in the survey for customer satisfaction, this move aims to remind consumers that smart is also being made by Daimler group thus quality and superiority is innate in the vehicles. There are already 75 Mercedes dealerships that carry the brand, Matura's goal is to have 100 by year's end.

This move is being undertaken because of the poor sales performance of smart cars in the past year. Penske Group only sold about 5,927 smartfortwos last year.

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Sprinter Sales Increase in Half of 2011

An article from Wards Auto reported a double in sales figure of Mercedes-Benz' Sprinter van. The Silver Arrow delivered a total of 5,185 units, a 102.1% increase compared to the numbers posted in the same time last year.

The vans were sold before as Dodge by Chrysler. Right now, out of the 353 Mercedes-Benz dealerships, 108 of them is currently selling the Sprinter as well as some Freightliner dealers and the number is also increasing.

Price of the passenger van costs $39,000 and has 200 stand-alone options and 24 packages that are optional. With these prices and choices, the van is beginning to be the pick for those offering chauffeur services and big families.

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Mercedes-Benz USA June Sales Increased

June 2011 sales figure has been released by Mercedes-Benz USA and the numbers are looking good. MBUSA sold a total of 22,653 units for this month representing an increase of 18.8% from June 2010. This is the highest number for June and also the highest for the first half of the year. Meanwhile, the YTD sales is 118,021 vehicles which penned a 10.4% increase in the company's books.
The E-Class and C-Class came in first in this numbers game as the 5,798 units of 9^th generation of E-Class was sold. The C-Class sold a total of 4,620 while the the M-Class was able to finish at third with 3,071. Another milestone for the company was its sales for 2012 CLS-class 4-door coupe increased by 645.5% and the GL-Class SUV increased by 75.9% based on June 2010 sales.

The table below shows the detailed MBUSA sales figures.

Source: Emercedesbenz.com

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Unimog U400 by LEGO

The world’s third largest toy manufacturer, LEGO, in partnership with Mercedes-Benz, is releasing the DIY Unimog U400 on August 2011.

The model will have 2048 elements, which is said to be the largest LEGO Technic model in the company’s history. It also looks like the original down to the minute details as Mercedes-Benz helped in creating this toy. Both LEGO and Mercedes-Benz will be selling it for about €190.

The Unimog is a machine-cum-vehicle that pushes snow away during winter and also helps in constructing new roads. The crane with an arm that rotates at almost 360 degrees and a strong grip and front winch can move any heavy load out of the way. The service control system of the crane is very accurate while the gear ensures perfect ground clearance which assures users of off-road mobility as well. It is convertible to a snow plough during winter thus being one of the best and most useful crane ever invented.

Source: EMercedesBenz

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