Mercedes-Benz sells over two million cars in CY2020, down 7.5%, triples global sales of xEVs

Despite the major challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, Mercedes-Benz delivered more than two million cars for the fifth consecutive year. Through advanced digitisation in sales and service, the German luxury carmaker says it was able to respond to the rapidly changing situation and the various regulatory requirements during the pandemic. With sales of 2,164,187 units (-7.5%), Mercedes-Benz maintained its leading global position compared with its core competitors.

“2020 placed great demands on us as a society. For Mercedes-Benz, the safety and health of our customers is our top priority. Dealerships and sales partners were able to meet the diverse customer requirements with creative, digital and contactless customer advice. We are delighted that our models continue to be so popular in these challenging times. The new S-Class in particular is inspiring and fascinating, as can already be seen from the high number of more than 40,000 orders worldwide,” said Britta Seeger, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Mercedes‑Benz AG responsible for Marketing and Sales.

Sales by regions and markets
Mercedes-Benz benefited from the ongoing recovery in many markets in the second half of the year. 1,024,315 units were sold in the Asia-Pacific region (+4.7%). The main sales driver was China, with an unprecedented recovery: due to a double-digit growth of 11.7%, a new sales record with 774,382 units was achieved. In the Europe region, the brand delivered 784,183 passenger cars last year (-16.4%), while in Germany, Mercedes-Benz sold a total of 286,108 cars (‑10.1%). Sales in the North America region totalled 317,592 units (-14.7%). Mercedes-Benz delivered 274,916 cars in the USA last year (-13.0%). Overall, the largest markets for Mercedes-Benz were China, Germany and the USA, followed by Great Britain and South Korea.

Model-wise sales
Last year, the S-Class was again the best-selling luxury sedan worldwide with about 60,000 units (-17.2%). The new S‑Class, presented by Mercedes-Benz in September, met with a very strong positive customer response: More than 40,000 orders have been received worldwide, already exceeding the order intake after the sales start of its predecessor. A total of approximately 691,000 compact cars (A-Class, A-Class Saloon, B-Class, CLA Coupé, CLA Shooting Brake, GLA and GLB) were delivered worldwide (+3.6%).

Sales of SUVs (GLA, GLB, GLC, GLC Coupé, EQC, GLE, GLE Coupé, GLS and G-Class) were about 885,000 vehicles (+12.9%). The GLE (+32.3%) and GLS (+21.1%) in particular enjoyed high customer demand. The best-selling model of Mercedes-Benz was the GLC with approximately 320,000 units.

The Mercedes-AMG sports and high-performance brand sold 125,129 vehicles worldwide (-5.3%). A new sales record and a growth of 1.5% was achieved in the USA, the brand’s largest market. Furthermore, a new record was also achieved in the important growth market of China (+32.3%). The USA, Germany, China, Japan and Australia were AMG’s largest markets.

A total of 38,391 vehicles of the smart brand were handed over to customers (-67.1%). The largest market for smart was Germany: There, strong demand for all-electric models was significantly boosted by the German government subsidy, which led to doubled electric smart deliveries (+104.9%). 

Steep increase in xEV sales
Meanwhile, Merceedes-Benz recorded a steep increase in xEV deliveries: More than 160,000 plug-in hybrids and all-electric vehicles were sold by Mercedes-Benz Cars worldwide (+228.8%), including about 87,000 units in the fourth quarter.

“We more than tripled sales of our plug-in hybrids and all-electric cars. Demand for these vehicles increased sharply, especially towards the end of the year. Our internal forecasts for 2020 indicate that we will have achieved the European CO₂ targets for passenger cars last year. We will continue to push forward with our ’Electric first’ strategy and the further expansion of our electric model initiative. Based on our current knowledge, we expect to meet the CO₂ targets in Europe again in 2021,” said Ola Kallenius, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz AG.

At Mercedes-Benz Cars, the xEV share increased from 2% in 2019 to 7.4% last year. Sales of plug-in hybrids almost quadrupled to more than 115,000 units. Approximately 20,000 EQC were handed over to customers worldwide. The EQV achieved sales of about 1,700 vehicles. Deliveries of the all-electric smart models totalled approximately 27,000 units, a strong double-digit increase (+45.6%) compared with the previous sales record in 2019 (18,400 units).

2021 will see four new Mercedes-EQ models roll out: the EQA, EQB, EQE and EQS. The Mercedes-Benz plug-in hybrid family, currently consisting of more than 20 model variants, will be renewed with electrified derivatives of the C-Class and the S-Class. For 2021, Mercedes-Benz Cars expects to increase the xEV share to approximately 13%.