Mercedes-Benz prioritises electric cars in profit push
Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV will help to boost "top-end" car sales
The German manufacturer expects sales of its electric cars to double through 2023
Mercedes-Benz anticipates that its "top-end" car sales will grow over the next year as it launches a series of luxurious electric models – despite forecasting a stabilisation in overall vehicle deliveries.
The key drivers of this high-end push will be the Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV (priced from £129,170) and its more opulent Maybach counterpart, the firm said in a statement.
It expects that these arrivals – as well as those of other electric models, such as the £90,560 EQE SUV – will help it to double BEV sales through 2023.
This push to more expensive – and more profitable – models has been bountiful for Mercedes-Benz: its average sale last year was worth €72,900 (£65,000), up 43% compared with 2019’s €51,000 (£45,500). This is also a 9% improvement on 2021’s average of €67,100 (£59,900).
The past two years’ figures will have been slightly inflated by the record success of luxury arm Maybach. It posted its second consecutive record year for sales volumes last year, delivering 21,600 cars, thanks to a surge in demand from Japan, Korea, the Middle East and China. In China alone, the brand delivered 1100 cars per month.
This year will prove to be transformative for the luxury division as it launches its first electrified models, the S580e plug-in hybrid (expected to cost north of £200,000) and the EQS SUV, mentioned above.
*Read more: Mercedes-Maybach S580e: brand's first PHEV brings 62-mile range*
The push to more profitable models meant that the Mercedes-Benz group’s earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) grew from €16.0 billion (£14.3bn) in 2021 to €20.5bn last year (£18.3bn), a 28% improvement.
The group took €150bn (£134bn) in revenue, up 12% year on year. Free cash flow improved from €7.9bn to €8.1bn (£7.0bn to £7.2bn).
Mercedes-Benz Cars’s research and development spending rose from €7.5bn in 2019 to €8.0bn last year (£6.7bn to £7.1bn) as it gears up to launch the next generation of its MB.OS operating system software.