According to a report compiled by Brand Finance, Mercedes-Benz is the world’s most valuable automobile brand.

The company places the German automaker’s value at $43.9 billion, a 24 per cent jump over the previous year. The key contributor in this jump in value was the 9.9 per cent rise in car sales to 2.3 million vehicles.

The position of Mercedes-Benz in the rankings isn’t the only intriguing thing. Slipping down to second position is Toyota, falling to a valuation of $43.7 billion, while BMW rose by 6 per cent to $41.8 billion. Brand Finance asserts that customers in the brand’s home country have shifted their focus from Toyota models towards more premium brands including Mercedes-Benz.

“Mercedes-Benz invented the automobile, and is now leading the industry with a brand strategy focused on re-inventing the automobile,” Brand Finance chief executive David Haigh said.

“Their success has been driven by the introduction of a new generation of vehicles led by their renewed foray into SUVs and smooth evolution of new technologies to move away from traditional internal combustion engines.”

Following Mercedes, Toyota, and BMW in the top 10 most valuable brands were Volkswagen, Honda, Nissan, Porsche, Ford, Audi and Chevrolet.

In terms of brand value change between 2017 and 2018, it was Aston Martin which easily took the crown, as its perceived value skyrocketed by 268 per cent. Other brands to enjoy significant jumps in value were BYD (211 per cent), Haval (124 per cent), Tesla (106 per cent), Jaguar (105 per cent) and Smart (103 per cent).