Luxury cars and vans help shore up Daimler's profits

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - Germany's Daimler AG, the maker of Mercedes-Benz cars, says stronger sales of luxury cars and higher profits in its van business helped shore up third-quarter profits.

The company said Thursday that its third-quarter net profit rose by a modest 3% from the year before to 1.81 billion euros ($2.02 billion). That was ahead of analyst estimates of 1.68 billion euros as compiled by financial information provider FactSet.

Though overall revenues rose 8% to 43.27 billion euros, the company said profit margins at the Mercedes luxury car division declined to 6% from 6.3%.

CEO Ola Kallenius warned that the company would need to "significantly reduce" costs in order to stay on top of the industry's shift toward electric cars and other new technology.