Daimler will axe its Maybach superluxury brand

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Daimler will axe its Maybach superluxury brand after years of losses and moribund sales, replacing the car with more expensive models of its Mercedes-Benz S-Class flagship saloon starting in 2013.

"We held extensive discussions internally about which way would promise the greatest success in the luxury segment, and we came to the conclusion that the sales chances for the Mercedes brand were better than that of Maybach," Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

"It would not be sensible to develop a successor model for the current Maybach," he added, according to an excerpt of the interview, which will be published in the German daily in full on Saturday.

Instead, he plans to extend the number of S-Class derivatives from a current three to six in order to boost the model's volume, possibly even doubling it to 80,000 cars a year.

A spokesman for the company declined to comment on which new S-Class derivatives would be added on top of the existing saloon, long-wheelbase saloon and the coupe, sold under the CL-Class nameplate.

"Maybach sold cars upwards of 300,000 euros, but what we want to do now is move into the 100,000-300,000 euros segment -- where the annual volumes are in the thousands and not the hundreds," the spokesman said.