“We will introduce the most efficient and intelligent cars we have ever built,” said Mercedes-Benz chief executive Ola Källenius in Shanghai.

He described the company’s vision as “supercomputers on wheels.”

China is the most important market for the German car company and important for technical innovations, said Källenius.

During his meeting with President Xi Jinping, he had emphasised that China and Mercedes are linked by a “deep friendship,” according to the chief executive.

Mercedes is also working with ByteDance, the Chinese company behind social media app TikTok, to integrate its artificial intelligence model into Mercedes cars in China, Källenius said.

On the eve of the Shanghai Motor Show, Mercedes unveiled a long-wheelbase version of its CLA electric car designed for the Chinese market with a range of more than 860 kilometres.

Mercedes also presented the Vision V, a concept van not intended for sale.

Mercedes-Benz reported lower sales for the first quarter, with the number of cars and vans sold between January to March dropping by 7 per cent to 529,200 compared to the same period last year.

The company said car sales were affected by model changes in the entry-level segment, especially in Germany, where the company is banking on the CLA to turn things around.

Although Mercedes still sold more than one in three of its cars in China, with 152,800 vehicles, sales fell by 10% in the first quarter compared to the same period in the previous year.

The company now faces strong competition from domestic manufacturers in the Chinese market who are overtaking them in the electric car segment.(dpa/NAN)