Mercedes-Benz car sales drop in Q2, China sales fall 6%

German carmaker Mercedes-Benz sold fewer vehicles in the second quarter of the year than in the same period last year, it reported on Wednesday.

A total of 600,100 cars and vans were sold from April to June. That was around 6% less than in the second quarter of 2023, the car manufacturer said.

Mercedes achieved an increase in van sales of 3% with a total of 103,400 vehicles. The passenger car division recorded a decline of 4% with 496,700 vehicles sold. Model changes and availability bottlenecks influenced sales in the first half of the year.

In the top product segment - which includes the S-Class among others - sales figures fell by 17%.

This was also due to a subdued market environment in Asia. In the important Chinese market, sales fell by 6%. However, with 172,600 vehicles, Mercedes still sold around 29% of its cars there.

Thanks to full product availability and the introduction of models such as the new G-Class, the car manufacturer expects sales to increase again in the second half of the year.

Mercedes also recorded a decline in sales of fully electric cars. At 45,800 units, sales in this segment fell by a quarter. A good one in thirteen cars sold in the second quarter was therefore a pure e-car. From January to March, almost every tenth car sold was an all-electric vehicle.

According to the company, the ramp-up of electric vehicles is slowing down in key markets. At the same time, there was an increase in demand for vehicles with plug-in hybrids, which led to a 27% increase in global sales compared to the same quarter last year.