In the three-way battle between the major German premium manufacturers Audi 2024 the big loser. Although they also suffered BMW and Mercedes Benz under weak demand China and in the home market Germany, but things were also going badly for Audi in the other areas, while the two arch-rivals did much better there in some cases. The bottom line is that Ingolstadt’s gap to the two larger competitors from Munich and Stuttgart is increasing.
BMW is currently ahead in terms of deliveries: at group level – including Mini and Rolls-Royce – the Munich-based company has 2.45 million cars. That was 4 percent less than in 2023. The core brand lost 2.3 percent to 2.2 million deliveries. In addition to the weak demand in… China The Munich-based company also suffered from delivery suspensions in the second half of the year due to problems with a braking system.
Mercedes-Benz had 2.39 million cars at group level, which was also 4 percent less. There are no vans at Mercedes-Benz Cars 1.98 million cars, which corresponds to a decrease of 3 percent. This also includes around 6,000 Smart cars, although they are hardly significant. Mercedes-Benz does not provide exact figures for the core brand. At least the Stuttgart-based company managed to increase sales of the more expensive and often particularly profitable series.
200,000 fewer cars at Audi
Audi is a long way behind. The core brand reported 1.67 million deliveries worldwide. That was almost 12 percent or a good 200,000 cars fewer than in 2023. The people of Ingolstadt are talking about a transition year and are hoping that new models will have an impact on volume in 2025. Audi is drawing the first hard consequences from the weak sales The factory in Brussels with 3,000 employees closes at the end of February. At the same time, Audi is talking to the general works council in Ingolstadt about how dismissals for operational reasons can be avoided in Germany.
China is becoming an Achilles heel for German manufacturers
All four manufacturers suffered in the important Chinese market. At Audi the decline was 11 percent to 649,000 cars, at Mercedes-Benz – excluding vans – 7 percent to 684,000 and at BMW – at group level – 13 percent to 715,000 cars.
At Porsche, sales even fell by 28 percent. However, in addition to China, Audi also reported declining deliveries in the USA and Europe, while BMW was able to increase minimally in both areas, and Mercedes at least in the USA. The home market of Germany was difficult for all three major German premium manufacturers. Here too, Audi performed by far the weakest.
Big differences in electromobility
The differences are particularly clear in purely electric cars. While BMW was able to increase deliveries of these BEVs at group level by 13.5 percent to 427,000, Mercedes-Benz fell by 22 percent to 205,000 at group level. Audi lost 8 percent to 164,000 BEVs. The Munich team was able to significantly expand their lead here.