Mercedes received 50,000 orders for new E-Class

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Daimler's luxury brand Mercedes-Benz received 50,000 orders for its new E-Class flagship saloon prior to its launch at the end of March, the company said on Tuesday.

"In Germany, bookings for an E-Class saloon more than doubled in the first quarter of this year compared to the previous year," Mercedes-Benz Cars sales chief Klaus Maier said in a statement.

The previous model generation of the E-Class had sales of more than 1.5 million vehicles that included roughly 200,000 units of its estate version.

Mercedes badly needs a success with its core model as sales continue to wither in the face of a sharp worldwide plunge in demand.

Deliveries of Mercedes-Benz brand vehicles dropped 17.5 percent in March to 98,500 units, bringing total sales in the first quarter to 216,000 -- a decline of 25 percent.

Rival luxury brand BMW (BMWG.DE) suffered a similar decline of 17 percent last month to 104,417 vehicles. Over the first three months, this translated to a drop of almost 21 percent to 277,264 units.

Audi, Volkswagen's (VOWG.DE) premium marque, is less dependent on the U.S. market and consequently has suffered only a 16.4 percent drop in vehicle sales during the past quarter and narrowed the gap to Mercedes to just 6,000 vehicles fewer sold in the period.