Mercedes faces auto show protest (2)

Some comments under the microblog piece speculated that the protest might have been encouraged by Mercedes' competitors, but im4s.cn wrote in a follow-up microblog post, "[Mercedes] needs to deal with its problems seriously. After all, it's late November now, and we can see some problems by comparing the respective performance of BBA (BMW, Benz and Audi) this year in China."

Mercedes sold 169,070 vehicles in the first 10 months of the year in China, up by 8 percent year-on-year. But its rival Audi sold 332,959 vehicles during the same period, soaring by 31.2 percent year-on-year, Reuters reported Sunday.

BMW's China sales in the first nine months of 2012 jumped by 32.7 percent to 219,800 vehicles, Reuters said.

Mercedes' lackluster performance this year was mainly due to difficult relations with its main dealer in China, Lei Shing Hong Auto, and its joint venture partner, the State-owned Beijing Automotive Group, Zeng Zhiling, director of LMC Automotive Asia Pacific Forecasting, told the Global Times.

"The three parties are all competing for profits derived from the sales of both domestically made and imported cars, and the situation is not very optimistic," Zeng said.

Mercedes has been hesitant to allow further localization in China, and sales of its locally produced E-Class models have been disappointing this year, despite a sharp cut in prices.

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