Wheels: Ernst Lieb, Chief of Mercedes USA, Is Fired

Daimler, the parent of Mercedes-Benz, has dismissed Ernst Lieb, the president and chief executive of the luxury automaker’s American subsidiary.

Daimler announced the move on Monday. The statement, in an e-mail by Florian Martens, senior manager for corporate communications in Stuttgart, Germany, did not explain Mr. Lieb’s dismissal. Mr. Lieb, 56, had held the position since 2006.

Ernst Lieb.

The company said Mr. Lieb was succeeded immediately by Herbert Werner, the chief financial officer of Mercedes-Benz USA, who was expected to hold the position “until further notice.”

Automotive News reported that Mercedes had canceled its national dealer meeting scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday in Chicago.

Mr. Werner was appointed chief financial officer in February 2009. He previously directed power train operations for Daimler in Germany and served as a member of the board of management at AMG, Daimler’s high-performance subsidiary.

In the last year, Mercedes-Benz USA acquired the rights from the Penske Automotive Group to market and sell Smart cars in America; began outfitting its Alabama plant to produce the C-Class sedan; and secured exclusive naming rights for the Louisiana Superdome, which was renamed the Mercedes-Benz Superdome this month.

Mr. Lieb joined
Dieter Zetsche, the chairman of Daimler, in June to inaugurate the brand’s only company-owned showroom in the United States. It is a 330,000-square-foot space on 11th Avenue in Manhattan, built at a reported cost of $220 million.

Mercedes has strengthened its sales position in the last two years. It became the No. 2 luxury brand behind Toyota’s Lexus subsidiary in 2009 and maintained that position in 2010.

The company sold 21,649 Mercedes-brand passenger vehicles in the United States in September. Not accounting for sales of its Sprinter vans and Smart cars, it sold 170,058 Mercedes-brand vehicles through September, a 7 percent improvement over sales for the same period in 2010. Over all, Mercedes-Benz USA sales were 10.4 percent higher than in the first nine months of 2010.

The performance was roughly on a par with that of BMW, its primary rival. In September, BMW USA sold 21,750 BMW-brand vehicles — not accounting for sales from its Mini subsidiary — but sold more units than Mercedes through September, 177,679, a 12.8 percent increase over year-to-date performance from 2010.

Audi, meanwhile, continued to gain on its rivals. It sold nearly 10,000 vehicles in September, a 19.3 percent increase over September last year. Through September, Audi sold roughly 85,000 vehicles in the United States.

Article source: http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/ernst-lieb-c-e-o-of-mercedes-benz-usa-is-dismissed/?partner=rss&emc=rss