(Jan 12): Mercedes-Benz Group AG fell further behind BMW AG in selling electric vehicles (EVs), leaving the automaker increasingly reliant on a slate of upcoming models to revive interest in its plug-in lineup.
Mercedes sold 168,800 fully electric cars last year, down 9% from 2024, it said on Monday. BMW’s EV sales, by contrast, rose 3.6% to 442,072. The diverging trajectories highlight the stakes for Mercedes chief executive officer Ola Källenius as he seeks to prove the company can keep pace with rivals in the shift to EVs.
The coming year will be a tough test for Källenius’s strategy of pushing Mercedes further upmarket as Chinese automakers expand and consumer sentiment remains uneven in Asia and Europe. While 2025 delivered some bright spots — including a record sales year for the G-Class offroader — Mercedes is contending with US tariffs and intensifying competition from Chinese manufacturers pushing into the luxury segment.
China remains a particular pressure point for the German auto industry. Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen AG have been ceding share in the world’s largest auto market to domestic brands led by BYD Co, which are undercutting foreign rivals on price while rolling out increasingly sophisticated plug-in models. Demand for luxury vehicles, meanwhile, has been damped by a prolonged downturn in China’s property market.
Volkswagen group’s vehicle deliveries in China fell 8% last year, it said in a separate statement on Monday. The Audi owner did especially poorly on EVs in the country, with sales of its fully electric models there slumping 44%. Still, the company’s global EV deliveries rose by nearly a third thanks to surging growth in Europe and the US. To improve sales in China, Volkswagen is preparing a new set of EVs for the local market with Xpeng Inc.
See also: Door of Swiss bar where 40 died in fire was locked, reports RTS
Mercedes shares declined as much as 2% in Frankfurt, while BMW’s stock fell as much as 2.4%. Volkswagen shares were little changed as of 3.45pm local time.
The competitive squeeze in China has forced automakers to lean more heavily on incentives to protect volumes, even as Beijing has sought to rein in the aggressive discounting that has battered margins across the industry. For Mercedes, the challenge is balancing pricing discipline — central to the CEO’s upmarket strategy — against the need to defend relevance in a market that has become both more crowded and price-sensitive.
BMW, whose China sales declined 12.5% in 2025, is betting that its newest EVs will help. The company last year unveiled the iX3 sport utility vehicle, the first of its Neue Klasse line the manufacturer spent well over €10 billion on.
See also: UBS warns on Swiss capital plans as government loses support
Mercedes’ overall global car sales fell 9% to 1.8 million in 2025, making it one of the company’s weakest annual performances in years. Deliveries in China dropped 19%, while sales in the core segment that includes medium-sized models like the E-Class slid 10% globally to 1.05 million units.
Still, there are signs of momentum in Mercedes’ electric portfolio. Mercedes’ new CLA electric sedan was named European Car of the Year at the Brussels International Motor Show, and order books for both the CLA and the upcoming GLC EV are filled through the second half of 2026.
Uploaded by Felyx Teoh
