Daimler will shut down Maybach brand.

Daimler will bring production of its super-luxury Maybach brand to a halt by 2013 as it focuses on developing Mercedes vehicles to step up its competition in the market.

The $350,000 Maybach has experienced losses since its reintroduction in 2002 and the Mercedes brand is losing pace on BMW and Audi which have grown at more than five times the rate of the Daimler brand over the past decade.

The Stuttgart-based manufacturer will stop producing the Maybach when a new version of the Mercedes S-Class becomes available in two years time. It intends to create six variations of the $95,000 S-Class in an attempt to restore its luxury-car sales lead, which it lost to BMW in 2005.

Daimler recorded a mere 200 sales of the Maybach last year, with best year sales of 600 in 2003. BMW's Rolls-Royce sold 2,700 vehicles in 2010 which shows just how off the pace the Maybach has been since its reintroduction to the market.

"Mercedes is now mounting the attack in the high-end segment," Daimler chief executive Dieter Zetsche told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "We have always dominated this segment and that should continue to be the case. We don't want to wait until the others pull ahead", informs "autocar".