With a more diversified product portfolio and a wider dealership network, Mercedes-Benz will continue to forge ahead in China this year despite the rough patch it went through in the first quarter, the luxury carmaker's top leaders said at the Shanghai auto show yesterday.

The premium car market in China has cooled down in the past three months, lagging the growth of the overall passenger car sector. Under this challenging climate, Mercedes-Benz saw an 11.5 percent year-on-year fall in its China sales.

"Our first-quarter performance was largely affected by the fact that we are forming a new sales company in China which takes a lot of time and effort," Nicholas Speeks, who took over Mercedes-Benz' operations in China in January said, referring to the establishment of Beijing Mercedes-Benz Sales Services Co last December to combine the carmaker's two sales channels in China.

With this venture now well on track, Speeks as well as Dieter Zetsche, chairman of Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, and Hubertus Troska, the board member of Daimler responsible for its China activities, expressed confidence that Mercedes-Benz will drive forward smoothly in China.

"I venture to say our performance for the whole year will be better than that of the first quarter. Our confidence is due to our products," said Troska.

The auto show witnessed the world premiere of the locally-produced new E-Class Long, a classic luxury sedan reborn with new dynamism as well as spaciousness which the Chinese market prefers.

"Though we want to maintain our strength in the traditional segment, we also want to expand with a broader product strategy," Zetsche claimed.

A big draw at the Mercedes-Benz stand are its compact cars -- the all-new A-Class launched earlier this week in China and the GLA concept sports utility vehicle on its world debut set to be locally produced - both presenting a fresher and more youthful face of Mercedes-Benz and targeting young consumers to expand the brand's customer scope.

To meet the annual sales target of 300,000 units projected by Zetsche for Mercedes-Benz China by 2015, which represents a 50 percent growth from last year, 20 new cars will hit the Chines market, both brand-new or face-lift models, Speeks revealed.

And to better facilitate the product launch, Mercedes-Benz will add another 75 outlets to its current sales network of around 260, setting up presence in 36 Chinese cities where it is still absent, he added.

Speeks insisted that the company will not just focus on the scope of its services but also on quality.

The largest training center of Mercedes-Benz outside Germany opened in Chengdu, southwestern Sichuan Province, this month.

Zetsche said that Daimler will invest 3 billion euros (US$3.9 billion) in China in the years to come though it plans to cut costs at Mercedes-Benz by 2 billion euros at the global level by 2014. China is not involved in any money-saving program, he suggested.

"We believe that China's premium sector will follow the trend of being slightly stronger than the overall market performance," said Troska. And undoubtedly this trend will be reflected in Mercedes-Benz' performance, he added.

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