London - Mercedes-Benz has overtaken Toyota and BMW to claim pole position as the world’s most valuable automobile brand, reports Brand Finance in its annual report.
The German automaker grew 24% year-on-year to $43.9-billion as its car sales increased by 9.9% to 2.3-million vehicles. Slipping to second was Toyota (down 6% to $43.7-billion), ahead of third-placed BMW (up 6% to $41.8-billion).
David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance, said: "Mercedes-Benz invented the automobile, and is now leading the industry with a brand strategy focused on re-inventing the automobile.
"Their success has been driven by the introduction of a new generation of vehicles led by their renewed foray into SUVs and smooth evolution of new technologies to move away from traditional internal combustion engines."
How it works: Each brand is assigned a Brand Strength Index (BSI) score out of 100. Based on the score, each brand is assigned a corresponding rating up to AAA+ in a format similar to a credit rating.
Brand Finance also ranks its "strongest brands" and "most valuable portfolio".
Most valuable brands: Info by Brand Finance