Daimler hopes to unseat BMW with new models

DETROIT: Daimler AG, the world's second-largest maker of luxury vehicles, plans to challenge Bayerische Motoren Werke AG's leadership by rolling out new technology and models that reduce carbon-dioxide emissions.

"We will attack this year definitely," Thomas Weber, Daimler's development chief, said in an interview at the Detroit auto show. "There is no reason why we should look to others. They have to look to us; we're setting the benchmark."

Daimler plans to use half of this year's 4.4 billion euros ($6.4 billion) in research-and-development spending on green technology, Weber said. Daimler's Mercedes-Benz trails only Munich-based BMW in deliveries and also competes with Volkswagen AG's Audi division, which said it will decide this year whether to build cars at a new US factory.