DAIMLERCHRYSLER Germany has ordered an additional 750 units from its plant in East London to meet the demand for Mercedes-Benz vehicles as a result of the Earth Summit in Johannesburg in August 2002. Employees at the plant have been asked to work overtime on a number of Saturdays to meet the demand, says DaimlerChrysler South Africa (DCSA) spokesman Deon Ebersohn. He said DCSA would lend 1 050 vehicles, mostly Mercedes-Benz C-Class, to transport world leaders and other VIPs during the summit. Ebersohn said the allocation of cars to the Earth Summit also resulted in 400 units more being sold during July 2002, which was on of the company’s best sales months. The star performer was the locally-made Mercedes-Benz C-Class, with sales of 2 402 units – making it the top-selling passenger car range in South Africa for the month. Nelson Mandela Metro-based Volkswagen South Africa was the overall market leader in the passenger car sector. Total sales of new passenger cars in South Africa were 21 166. This was 11.6 per cent up on June 2002, but 1.7 per cent down on July 2001.