The car manufacturer Mercedes Benz the weak demand for top models gets in China and feel for electric vehicles. According to information from Friday, the Stuttgart-based company sold a good 1.98 million vehicles last year, which is 3 percent less than a year ago. Growth in North America could not make up for the slump in China and Europe.
Mercedes justified the decline in sales of the top models with weaker demand Electric cars, model changes and market conditions in China. The crisis in the Chinese real estate market made it difficult for many wealthy customers to buy cars.
In total, the Stuttgart-based company sold 281,500 top-end models, which is 14 percent less than a year ago. Business with entry-level vehicles also did worse. On the other hand, there was an upward trend for mid-range cars. In the van division, sales fell by 9 percent to 405,600 vehicles, partly because demand for mobile homes is declining again after the Corona boom.
23 percent fewer fully electric cars sold
The business with electric cars suffered a significant setback: the Swabians only sold 185,100 fully electric cars, which is 23 percent less than a year ago. In order to be able to comply with the CO₂ limits in Europe this year, car manufacturers are dependent on higher sales of electric cars. In order to prevent fines, Mercedes has already worked with its now purely electric subsidiary Smart and with Volvo and Polestar agreed on a pool. The Stuttgart-based company can offset its carbon dioxide emissions against the zero-emission e-cars from the other three manufacturers.