FRANKFURT - Daimler AG said Friday that its luxury brand Mercedes-Benz sold 142,994 vehicles in September, the highest sales number in a single month.

The new S-Class and E-Class sedans of Mercedes-Benz are proving popular with customers, and sales of A-Class, B-Class and CLA-Class models are also increasing, the company said.

In September, the sales increase was particularly strong in Japan (31.4 percent year-on-year) and in China (21.2 percent year-on-year), with 27,481 units sold in the two countries.

The sales rose 6.7 percent in the United States, the brand's biggest single market, and 14.2 percent in Europe. However, sales at home in Germany only rose 1.5 percent.