Mercedes BEV sales continue to toil

Germany’s Mercedes recorded a third consecutive quarter of year-on-year declines in its BEV sales in Q3. Germany and the US are responsible for a significant portion of the slowdown.

The firm sold 42,500 all-electric cars in Q3, down by 31pc from the same quarter last year (see main image). E-vans saw a similar annual decline in volumes, with 4,400 units sold.

All quarters of 2024 thus far have been lower than in 2023, meaning that cumulative Mercedes BEV car sales for the first nine months of the year are now almost 34,000 behind where they stood at the end of last September (see Fig.1).

Fig.1: BEV car sales falling further behind last year

The Q3 decline has been most marked, after 8pc and 18pc drops in Q1 and Q2 respectively. But some of this greater Q3 weakness could have been anticipated, given the spike in BEV sales last August in Mercedes’ home German market ahead of the expiry of a subsidy.

Mercedes sold just 2,425 BEVs in the German market in August, compared to 4,659 in the same month last year. And sluggishness in the German market after the unexpected withdrawal of other subsidies in December have been a drag on Mercedes’ all-electric sales throughout the year.

Over the first nine months, the firm has seen German sales of Mercedes and Smart, its 50/50 joint venture with China’s Geely, BEVs fall from over 41,500 units in Jan-Sep ’23 to less than 34,000 year-to-date (see Fig.2).

Fig.2: Germany and the US major contributors to Mercedes' BEV sales slump

But it is not just in Germany where Mercedes is seeing its all-electric sales in reverse. In the US, volumes of its EQB e-SUV and its EQE and EQS saloons fall from almost 34,00 units in the first nine months of 2023 to less than 24,00 so far this year.

In contrast to these material drops in sales in key markets, Mercedes is still seeing BEV growth in some smaller European national markets, such as the Netherlands and Sweden.