When it comes to the luxury car market, it seems that the competition is not big, because most of the share of this market segment is still divided by the BBA; it is not small to say that the competition is small, after all, these three car companies are fighting for the head everywhere, and do not give other second-tier luxury brands a way to live.
However, although the BBA sells well, everyone has a definition of it in their hearts. For example, Mercedes-Benz, in the past cognition, whether in terms of sales or influence is in an absolute leading positioning, and BMW is close behind, and the younger brother Audi is catching up behind. Times have passed, and Mercedes-Benz, which has always been very aggressive, has planted a heel in 2021, and lost the crown to BMW in global sales.
Based on Mercedes-Benz's just-announced sales in the fourth quarter of 2021 and full-year sales, the global retail sales volume of Daimler's Mercedes-Benz brand in the fourth quarter decreased by 24.6% y/y to 464,130 units. According to the data of the first three quarters, Mercedes-Benz's annual sales in 2021 were 2.093 million units, down 5% year-on-year. Last week, BMW announced annual sales of 2.2 million units, and although detailed data has not yet been released, it is undoubtedly no problem to overtake Mercedes-Benz.
Not only is it difficult to defeat BMW in the global market, but mercedes-Benz's performance in China is also declining. As early as the summary of achievements in the first half of 2021, BMW temporarily ranked the top position in domestic luxury car sales with an advantage of 26,000 units. With the spread of global chip shortage in the second half of the year, Mercedes-Benz's sales have once again been hit hard, in August, its three major sales aces Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Mercedes-Benz GLC and Mercedes-Benz E-Class, sales have not exceeded 10,000 units, and Mercedes-Benz C-Class has only sold 4903 embarrassing results.
As for the reasons for Mercedes-Benz's continuous decline in 2021, naturally there is a large extent of the impact of lack of cores, which leads to Mercedes-Benz taking the lead in giving high-end models to maintain its own profits when supplying chips. However, the lack of core, not only Mercedes-Benz is lacking, after all, the major car companies are not happy, so compared with the stability of BMW and Audi, Mercedes-Benz's big decline is also related to products.
In fact, Mercedes-Benz has been constantly breaking out negative news in recent years, and the failure of the redesign is also a big reason, such as the current Mercedes-Benz E-class, although it has canceled the 1.5T model of the IQ detector, but the appearance and interior have changed greatly, dissuading a large number of consumers. At the same time, due to the small displacement engine in the first two years, the brand image of Mercedes-Benz was lost, and it was difficult to recover in a short period of time.
In addition, the new generation of Mercedes-Benz C-class can not beat the BMW 3 series, to know that the 3 series was previously in the name of missing cores of various reductions, but BMW has done this, mercedes-benz C-class performance is still flat, on the one hand, because Mercedes-Benz is more arrogant, the discount is not in place, and on the other hand, Mercedes-Benz C-class power is not high enough, the whole series is only equipped with 1.5T power, what do you take to compare with people's 2.0T? As a luxury car priced at more than 300,000 yuan, even a 2.0T power must be castrated for you, and the Chinese people are certainly not willing to buy it.
Therefore, the current situation of Mercedes-Benz is also the result of self-inflicted blame. Think again, how Mercedes-Benz has treated domestic consumers in recent years, the Chinese people are in the eyes, has long lost patience with Mercedes-Benz, consumers buy cars no longer only look at the logo, Mercedes-Benz if not change the arrogant attitude of domestic consumers, will continue to decline.
Write at the end
Whether from the global market or the domestic market, Mercedes-Benz was indeed suppressed by BMW in 2021, and BMW has become the biggest winner among luxury brands with its steady performance.
However, 2022 has arrived, new battles are gradually starting, according to the current planning, Mercedes-Benz and BMW will also release more than 20 new cars, including a number of pure electric and plug-in products. So in the new year, can the proud Mercedes-Benz achieve a counterattack? Can BMW secure its championship? We'll see.
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