Mercedes US Model Sales : 2023/24

If there is one thing German marques do well in and that's complexity. It is at least partly fueled by intense competition and entering every niche they can think of. 

Looking at the list to the right bears this out and not all models available are here. Merecedes-Benz can point to the success they enjoy as justification and I can't deny that. It's a complex world and I believe at some point that becomes inefficient. 

Moving on, the GLE and GLC are the best selling passenger vehicles. Vans are combined and collectively they are up there with strong sales although they took a hit in 2024, taking them from top to third. The CLS and A-Class have been discontinued.

Data & pictures: Mercedes-Benz.

Sales for the year were the same as last year. The best performing models were the GLC (picture above) which was up 58% and the GLA up 65%. The CLE (picture below) arrived in 2024. 

Mercedes-Benz Global Deliveries : 2022-23

Mercedes-Benz passenger car sales were the same in 2023 as the year before, well a tad lower but nothing in it. China held up to be the top region again but with a reduced lead. North America was up but Asia (less China) and the rest were down.

Light commercial vans were up 9% with Europe and North America doing the best. However, all regions improved. Vans now make up 18% of deliveries, up from 16.7% in 2022. Adding vans to the total gave Mercedes -Benz a 1.5% overall increase. 

Electric cars increased from 117,800 deliveries to 222,600. That was an increase of 73% on a year earlier. They now contribute 11% of total passenger car sales, up from just under 6% in 2022. 

Mercedes-Benz vs BMW : 2022

Is there a battle between MB and BMW for bragging rights? Both companies watch each other closely and the media certainly compares them. Profit is what capitalism is all about but it's usually sales where the focus is with us, the public. 

Mercedes: 2,043,900 deliveries, -0.5% or half a percent down. China made up 37% of the total, Europe without Germany 20%. I'm sure that's considered a satisfactory result considering how things are at present. 

BMW/MINI: 2,393,615 deliveries, -4.9%. China 33% of the total, Europe without Germany 26%. Again, they won't be disappointed. Regional figures released by BMW (see below) include MINI. 

BMW Automotive Group: Breaking things down, the BMW marque sold 2,100,692 cars, down 5.1%. So BMW as a brand outsold Mercedes, the gap now 56,800, which is tiny allowing for the overall volumes involved.

MINI deliveries were 292,923 and -3.0%. Again a reasonable result. Below is added a buoyant Rolls Royce, bringing the total to 2.4 million units. 

A man training his dog where to cock his leg. Not nice.

UK Regional Penetration 2019 : Mercedes & BMW

SW England, a fine holiday destination

Below is a chart that has the UK divided into regions (England) and countries that show how these two marques are doing. The chart also has a ratio number by which the chart is sorted (1:1000). The higher the ratio, the further up the chart. The three countries each have a different colour and the England divisions are green.

Mercedes-Benz is strongest in South West England and the London area. It definitely has a southern leaning, where a disproportionate amount of the wealth in the UK is situated. The countries outside of England and the North East England are where M-B is weakest, basically some of the less fortunate areas when it comes to disposable income. The Great British divide, which has worsened in more recent times.

	Mercedes Benz
	Region	Sales	1:1000
	South West England	29,131	107.1
	London	15,056	94.1
	East Midlands	14,875	90.5
	South East England	42,794	87.6
	Yorkshire & Humber	12,153	64.7
	North West England	14,848	63.0
	East England	14,064	62.6
	West Midlands	12,998	55.1
	Wales	3,839	47.9
	Scotland	8,222	46.3
	North East England	2,907	42.3
	Northern Ireland	1,988	38.9
	Total	172,875	73.7

BMW is less understandable in how it fares. It is the top selling brand in Yorkshire & Humberside, and its 15.6% share is very high. In London, it is not very popular nor the East Midlands. The countries outside of England are again not good.

	BMW
	Region	Sales	1:1000
	Yorkshire & Humber	29,344	156.2
	South West England	26,293	96.7
	East England	20,324	90.5
	North West England	16,520	70.1
	West Midlands	15,855	67.2
	North East England	4,540	66.1
	Scotland	10,832	60.9
	London	8,671	54.2
	Northern Ireland	2,677	52.3
	South East England	24,805	50.8
	East Midlands	7,362	44.8
	Wales	3,571	44.5
	Total	170,794	72.8

Data source: DTI.

Mercedes Brand Grobal Prod Car/LCV By Nation : 2011-14

Mercedes production data for 2011 was not provided so I sourced what I could as best I could. Therefore gaps in 2012 do not represent nothing doing, but that I don't know for certain. Like BMW, production went up from 2.0% to 2.2%, coming in 13th and one behind the arch rival premium marque.

Mercedes has a broader spread of manufacturing facilities than its Bavarian competitor. That said 63% of all cars and light commercials are made in the homeland. China doesn't figure that highly compared to other premium marques.

11	12	13	14	Nation	2011	2012	2013	2014	%
1		1	1	Germany	1,150,861	1,107,563	1,156,345	1,184,173	63%
2		2	2	USA	148,253	166,848	185,026	232,712	12%
-		4	3	Hungary		41,035	109,263	150,290	8%
4		3	4	China	87,757	96,839	123,449	150,039	8%
5		5	5	RSA	54,961	45,327	50,287	45,881	2%
-		8	6	Finland			7,609	45,842	2%
3		6	7	Spain	90,222		33,842	41,989	2%
7		7	8	Austria	7,123	9,850	12,675	15,066	1%
-		-	9	Slovenia				11,998	1%
-		9	10	Russia			963	2,393	0%
6		-	-	Argentina	16,379
8		-	-	Portugal	2,013
				Other		132,118
				Total	1,557,696	1,599,580	1,679,459	1,880,383	2%

Data source: OICA.

BMW vs Merc vs Audi: Germany

The sales war between the three German premium brands is intense. How that battle has played out is interesting, no more so than in the domestic market. NSU and Auto Union were separate brands but combined to become Audi in 1969. I treat them as one company - Audi - throughout. The chart shows the year, then rank in the German market, sales figure and market share:

Yr		Mercedes				BMW				Audi
1963	5	80500	6.3%		8	31400	2.5%		4	92900	7.3%
1965	4	91500	6.0%		8	34700	2.3%		5	84800	5.6%
1970	6	145500	6.9%		8	86700	4.1%		4	158500	7.5%
1975	4	175500	9.3%		5	128600	6.1%		7	107600	5.1%
1980	4	249900	10.3%		6	138900	5.7%		5	209700	8.6%
1985	3	273500	11.5%		5	144400	6.1%		6	130200	5.5%
1990	4	261400	8.6%		5	191000	6.3%		6	167500	5.5%
1995	4	250300	7.6%		5	214900	6.5%		6	206400	6.2%
2000	3	409200	12.1%		5	237800	7.0%		6	234400	6.9%
2005	3	343900	10.3%		4	263900	7.9%		5	248800	7.4%
2010	2	281200	9.6%		3	235300	8.1%		5	226900	7.8%

MB has been the leader here since the mid 60's, and BMW has been the smoothest in its progression forward - its sales gaining in every period listed. So far in 2011, all have lost market share and BMW has fallen to 4th behind Opel.

In comparison to other premium brands, in 2010 Volvo sold 25,800 (0.9%), Jaguar only 3,200 (0.1%) and Lexus merely 2,050 (0.1%). Strong bias shown here.

In summary: Germany's three premium brands have proved most successful indeed.

Quelle: Kraftfahrt–Bundesamt

Was It Smart?

The original idea behind the smart car was that the vehicle would be easy to drive and park in congested cities. It is short enough to allow it to be parked facing the kerb. The car started selling in 1998 with initial sales encouraging. This led to an expanding of the smart car brand with the introduction of the Roadster and Roadster-Coupe in 2003 and the Forfour sedan in 2004.

Smarts were made in France exclusively up to 2004 but then the smart Forfour were produced in The Netherlands. There the car shared most of its components with the Mitsubishi Colt, which was made there also. However The Forfour and Roadster bombed, as consumers found them to be overpriced and not in keeping with the simplicity of the original idea.

The failure led to a dramatic downturn in smart's fortunes, which led DaimlerChrysler's to consider stopping production altogether. The cars were losing Mercedes Benz a bundle of money. However, it has been kept alive around the basic car only, renamed Fortwo which debuted in 2006. With only a slight increase in size, the look of the original city car remained, but the interior and often-criticized transmission received significant changes and safety was improved. So with the new smart fortwo, how does it rate?

What's good: A design classic; easy to park in crowded cities; quite safe, low carbon emissions.

What's not: Expensive, auto gearbox still jerky and no manual gearbox; cheap feel to the interior. You can get a decent, small four-seater for less.

Overall: It is so-so on the open road so it's really best used around town.

Sales: 2000 100,000 2001-3 120,000 per year 2004 170,000 2005 125,000 2006 85,000 2007 (10 mths) 80,000. The 2004 figure was helped by all three models, but 2005 saw only 45,000 ForFours and 3,000 Roadsters. Best countries: Germany 50,000 (2004) Italy 42,000 (2005).

Why didn’t MB bite the bullet years ago and kill the whole thing instead of stubbornly keeping on going? Maybe it wouldn’t be good for German/French relations. Were the executives too proud to admit their mistake? Pride can hurt you and this car has certainly done that for MB. When smart creators Swatch went to VW to make the car, they wouldn’t. That should have set alarm bells ringing. It didn’t for MB execs and that decision has cost them big time, billions of Euros in fact. It may be easy to park and frugal sipping fuel, but most want more than that and smart just cannot deliver. It proved not to be that smart an idea in the end.