ACE Daimler 2011 bedzie rekordowym rokiem ACE

SINDELFINGEN, Germany (Reuters) -- Luxury car and commercial truckmaker Daimler expects its top brand Mercedes-Benz to see continued unit sales growth in January, its passenger car sales chief said on Saturday.

"I hope we will see double-digit growth again in January," Joachim Schmidt said at an event in Sindelfingen near Stuttgart.

He said the company had seen positive sales growth continue in China despite the introduction of restrictions on new vehicle registrations in Beijing in January.

But Daimler does not expect its ultra compact Smart-branded cars to do so well. After sales of the two-seat cars declined to around 97,500 units last year, Schmidt said he expected sales of around 90,000 Smart cars in 2011.

A completely reworked version of the Smart car, which Daimler now offers in China and the United States, will not come on to the market until 2012 at the earliest.

Daimler expects 2011 to be a record year for sales. CEO Dieter Zetsche said earlier this month Mercedes-Benz Cars would supply more cars around the world than ever before, but said it would be unrealistic to expect the kind of growth rates seen in 2010.

In 2010, Mercedes-Benz saw sales grow 15.3 percent to 1.17 million units.

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