It should shine again, the star of Mercedes. And on the S-Class, which the car manufacturer presented on Thursday at the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart, the striking emblem really shines – on the front of the hood. The illuminated element is one of the most obvious innovations with which the traditional Baden-Württemberg company wants to make its luxury sedan attractive again. The S-Class is not just any vehicle for Mercedes – it is the car that has set standards for half a century. But the reputation of the S-Class has suffered greatly in recent years, and sales have continuously declined so significantly that the once huge lead over BMW’s seven-series has been lost. The hopes that Mercedes has with the model now presented are therefore immense – and the ambition could hardly be higher. CEO Ola Källenius chose pathetic words for the new presentation. No car embodies the legacy of the Mercedes Group’s 140-year history more than the S-Class. “It remains our benchmark – and our promise,” said Källenius at the presentation on this historic day. On January 29, 1886, Carl Benz applied for a patent for his “vehicle with gas engine operation”. External appearance not fundamentally changed. The words reflect the expectations that the innovations of the S-Class will also bring sales figures forward again. The now updated version of the 2021 S-Class has a new digital and electronic architecture, new electrified combustion engines, and the vehicle is controlled by the new MB.OS operating system. But even though Mercedes claims to have revised or redeveloped 2,700 components in the car, the external appearance of the sedan has not fundamentally changed. Despite all the glitter and shine, despite all the references to the history of the S-Class, which is so important for the company, the numbers show how urgently the refresh of the flagship sedan is for Mercedes. According to information from the F.A.Z. For the first time, Mercedes sold fewer S-Class sedans and EQS models than BMW of its seven-series and the electrified EQS competitor i7. Based on market data from IHS Automotive, Mercedes will only sell 35,000 S-Class models in 2025, plus 5,000 EQS of the electric S-Class from Mercedes. According to the analysis company’s figures, BMW will sell around 45,000 units for its seven-series and the electrified EQS competitor i7. Only if the much more expensive Maybach S-Class is included, which actually competes against BMW’s luxury brand Rolls-Royce, does Mercedes achieve a higher value than its arch-rival from Munich, with around 54,000 luxury cars sold. Upon request, BMW confirmed the extrapolated figures, as did Mercedes.More on the topicFor the people of Stuttgart, the Maybach variant of the S-Class belongs to the luxury class sedan segment, but in Munich they see it differently: They see the competitor to their seven-series in the normal S-Class, which starts at 110,000 euros, and not in the Maybach versions, which are twice as expensive. The decline is not surprising. Mercedes has significantly reduced production of the S-Class and EQS in Sindelfingen. For a good year now, both models have only been manufactured in one-shift operation in the so-called Factory 56. The Mercedes S-Class (“Special Class”), first introduced under the name in 1972, is an icon. There used to be a world of difference between the top models from Mercedes and BMW. The gap between the 7-Class and the S-Class was greatest ten years ago. At that time, the Stuttgart-based company sold a good 100,000 units of its luxury sedan, while the Munich-based company sold just under 49,000 sevens, less than half that figure. It was the time when the S-Class was in top shape, while BMW had just replaced the fifth generation of its own flagship. The lead was used up. But in recent years, Mercedes has used up the lead that previous S-Class models had achieved with the current generation. Mercedes last reported its own figures for the S-Class sedan in the 2020 financial year; at that time there were 53,800 vehicles. Since then, the numbers have no longer been broken down, but rather just mixed together. Mercedes has lost significantly more than BMW in the luxury segment year after year. Above all, the attempt to gain a foothold in the electronics market with the EQS was a complete failure. The first generation of these luxury battery cars failed to impress the discerning clientele either visually or technologically. Mercedes once wanted to sell ten times as many of the electric top model EQS, which was sold around 5,000 times in 2025. Although the BMW i7 also fell short of previous expectations, the Munich-based company still builds three times as many of them as Mercedes.
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