Mainly due to setbacks in sales figures China and in the USA The VW Group and Mercedes-Benz sold fewer cars last year. Both car manufacturers presented their sales figures for 2025 on Monday.
In 2025, the VW Group delivered 8.98 million vehicles of all group brands to its customers worldwide. That was 0.5 percent less than a year earlier, as the Wolfsburg-based company announced. At Mercedes the decline was more significant. With around 2.16 million cars and vans, the Swabians sold 10 percent fewer vehicles to dealers than in the previous year.
Mercedes already had a competitor last week BMW published its sales figures. The Munich-based company recorded a small increase of 0.5 percent, as the group announced. BMW sold 2.46 million vehicles to its customers.
Given the slightly different calculations, the numbers cannot be compared one-to-one, but they still show development. Financial figures for the past year are not yet available; the DAX companies will publish them in the course of the first quarter.
VW Group cannot compensate for China’s misery
In Europe, Europe’s largest car manufacturer made gains. 3.38 million vehicles from all Group brands were delivered here, 3.8 percent more than in 2024. However, this could not compensate for declines in China and North America. “In particular, the intense competitive situation in China as well as the tariffs and the loss of electric subsidies in the USA have affected our business,” said Audi-Sales Director Marco Schubert, who also looks after the department within the entire group.
In China, where the group is struggling with tough price competition from local electric car providers, 2.69 million vehicles were handed over to customers in 2025, 8 percent less than in the previous year. In North America, where Europe’s automakers are under President’s new tariffs Donald Trump (79) suffer, the number of deliveries fell by 10.4 percent to 946,800 vehicles.
Sales of purely electric cars increased significantly. 983,100 electric cars from all Group brands were delivered worldwide in the year as a whole, almost a third more than in 2024. In Europe, the number even rose by 66 percent. Almost every ninth new car from the group in 2025 was a battery car.
VW has not yet provided any information about the individual brands. In addition to the core brand, the VW Group also includes Volkswagen including Audi and the sports car manufacturer Porsche AG.
Mercedes-Benz 9 percent in the red
Mercedes-Benz divides its sales into cars and vans. The Stuttgart-based company sold a total of just over 1.8 million cars, which corresponds to a decline of 9 percent compared to 2024. Vans recorded a decline of 11 percent to 359,100 vehicles. Almost every tenth car was purely electric.
In China, where Mercedes still delivered almost a third of all cars with 551,900 cars, the decline was particularly significant at 19 percent. The money there isn’t as loose as it used to be. In addition, competition from new domestic companies has increased significantly. In Germany The Swabians remained at the previous year’s level with 213,200 vehicles.
In the USA, among other things, tariffs had an impact on group sales, the Dax group said. Mercedes sold around 285,000 vehicles there last year, which corresponds to a decline of 12 percent.
New models give the DAX group hope. According to the statement, customer orders for the new electric CLA and GLC introduced last year were significantly above expectations. This year, among other things, a new version of the S-Class will be presented.
BMW is gaining a bit
At BMW, the Chinese business also had a significant impact on the figures. The market weakness there in the fall led to that the Munich group published a profit warning. But sales in Europe and the USA, as well as the subsidiary brand Mini, saved BMW from another year of shrinking deliveries.
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Specifically, BMW sold 1.02 million cars in Europe last year, 7.3 percent more than the previous year. In the USA there were 417,638, an increase of 5 percent. In China, however, sales fell by 12.5 percent to 625,527 cars.