The 1,000 square-meter studio will help design Mercedes-Benz vehicles along with the existing facilities in Germany, the United States, Italy and Japan, a senior Daimler AG executive said.

"Design influences from this region will become more important in the cars of tomorrow," Ulrich Walker, CEO of Daimler Northeast Asia, told reporters on the sidelines of an event to mark the studio's opening.

In the first half, Mercedes-Benz sold 95,030 cars in China, up 59 percent year-on-year, outpacing a 5.8 percent gain in the country's car market.

Annual sales in China are expected to rise more than 20 percent this year, Walker said, and to exceed 300,000 units by 2015, when it is expected to be Mercedes' largest market.