Mercedes-Benz sells fewer cars and loses top spot

Mercedes-Benz delivered five percent fewer cars last year than in 2020, mainly because of the semiconductor crisis. With around 2.05 million vehicles, the Stuttgart-based company was behind arch-rival BMW for the first time in years, which sold more than 2.2 million cars from its main brand .

This emerges from the sales statistics presented by Mercedes-Benz on Friday in Stuttgart. BMW had already communicated its figures. In 2016, the Mercedes brand took the lead in global sales of premium models from the Munich-based company.

Lack of semiconductors brakes Mercedes

The industry-wide shortage of semiconductors has slowed down the delivery of new vehicles, the manufacturer summed up. Towards the end of the year, there was a slump in sales: in the months of October to December, the brand with the star delivered 464,130 cars worldwide, almost a quarter less than in the same period last year.

According to earlier information, the bottleneck in semiconductors and other electronic components led to production restrictions. The manufacturer has now announced that the situation remains volatile. This should continue to affect both production and sales.

Mercedes is also losing sales in China

In the Chinese market, which is very important for Mercedes, there was a minus of two percent for the year as a whole. In Europe there was a decline of over eleven percent, with the minus in Germany being above average at 25.5 percent. On the other hand, there was slight growth in the USA and in the entire North America region.

The vans in the group delivered 2.6 percent more cars with 334,210 vehicles. Overall, however, the manufacturer handed over only 2.43 million vehicles to customers. That was four percent less than in the previous year.

The umbrella company Daimler prioritized more lucrative models and electric cars when installing available semiconductors in order to still make the highest possible profit. Sales of so-called high-end models and electric cars are at record levels, it said. In 2021, sales of all-electric models increased by around 90 percent to 99,301 cars.