At any time, the "Mercedes-Benz" brand has always been regarded as one of the synonyms of luxury cars, even today, more than a hundred years after the invention of the car. As a pioneer representative of the first-line luxury car brands, the first letter of the "BBA" that people pass on by word of mouth, what are the wonderful memories of the Mercedes-Benz brand that are worth commenting on in the past 2021? What new experience will the new year bring to Chinese consumers? In this issue of the "Review of 2021" series of topics, let's review the big events experienced by the Mercedes-Benz brand in the Chinese car market.
※ Mercedes-Benz brand sales review in the Chinese market in 2021
Like almost all auto companies, in the past 2021, Mercedes-Benz's production and operation have also been affected by factors such as the repeated new crown epidemic and the shortage of global automotive chips. According to official figures, mercedes-Benz will deliver more than 2.4 million new vehicles worldwide in 2021, including 758,863 new vehicles to Chinese customers in the Chinese market.
When it comes to the sales performance of Mercedes-Benz in the Chinese market, it is first inseparable from the two joint venture companies of Beijing Benz and Fujian Benz. After all, the sales of domestic models contributed by the two joint ventures are the foundation of the Mercedes-Benz brand in the Chinese market. According to the data provided by the "Passenger Car Market Information Association", the two joint ventures of the Mercedes-Benz brand in China (Beijing Benz and Fujian Benz) will sell a total of 598,527 new vehicles in 2021, of which Beijing Benz will complete sales of 561,331 units in 2021 and Fujian Benz will complete sales of 37,196 units in 2021.
Specific to the model, the sales of the three main sedan products of Beijing Benz, Mercedes-Benz A-Class, Mercedes-Benz C-Class and Mercedes-Benz E-Class, respectively, were 56,639 units, 126,021 units and 134,631 vehicles, and the sales of the three main SUV products Mercedes-Benz GLA, Mercedes-Benz GLLB and Mercedes-Benz GLC in 2021 were 33,135 units, 53,809 units and 140,049 vehicles, respectively, showing that the higher the model level, the better the market performance. It can be seen that for first-line luxury brands like Mercedes-Benz, the most easy models to take are mainly medium-sized and medium-sized cars and medium-sized SUVs, while the market performance of compact models is relatively general.
Ref: 2022 Beijing Benz C 260 L Sport Haoye Edition
Ref: 2022 Beijing Benz E 300 L Sport Fashion Model
Ref: 2022 Mercedes Benz GLC 260 L 4MATIC Luxury
In terms of new energy models, the market performance in 2021 is not very satisfactory, of which the three pure electric models Mercedes-Benz EQA, Mercedes-Benz EQB, Mercedes-Benz EQC combined annual sales of less than 10,000 vehicles, of course, this needs to take into account that Mercedes-Benz EQA and Mercedes-Benz EQB are just listed during the 2021 Guangzhou Auto Show, the market time is relatively short, and the potential of market demand has not been fully tapped; but the Mercedes-Benz EQC that has been listed in 2019 has only sold 6,098 vehicles in 2021. Such market performance is really not good. In contrast, Mercedes-Benz E-class new energy (plug-in hybrid) sold a total of 7,908 units in 2021, which can only be said to be each other.
Ref: 2021 Beijing Benz EQC 350 4MATIC
Ref: 2021 Beijing Benz E 350 E L plug-in hybrid sports sedan
In addition, Fujian Benz's two medium and large MPV models, Vito and Mercedes-Benz V-Class, contributed 16,343 units and 20,853 vehicles to the Mercedes-Benz brand in 2021, respectively, which is not bad and normal compared with the market performance in previous years.
Ref: 2021 Fujian Mercedes-Benz Vito 2.0T Business Edition 9-seater
Ref: 2020 Fujian Benz V 260 Premium Edition
We note that Mercedes-Benz has not officially announced specific sales data for pure import models in the Chinese market in 2021, but according to the official statement, mercedes-Benz will continue to strengthen the brand's luxury positioning in 2021, especially in the luxury car and SUV segments.
Among them, the S-Class sedan continues to maintain its leading position in the segment; in addition, in the SUV product family, GLE SUV, GLSUV and G-Class car are particularly favored by customers and have achieved double-digit growth; Mercedes-Maybach and Mercedes-AMG brands have also achieved double-digit growth.
※ Mercedes-Benz brand 2021 Chinese market events
(1) Usher in the year of EQ
2021 means that for Mercedes-Benz, it has ushered in the "year of EQ". In July 2021, Mercedes-Benz officially announced its transition to "all-electric" and accelerated its development towards zero emissions and software drive.
Throughout 2021, Mercedes-Benz launched a total of 3 new pure electric models, of which two compact pure electric SUVs, namely EQA and EQB, were introduced and domestically produced by Beijing Benz and launched during the Guangzhou Auto Show in November 2021; the large pure electric luxury sedan EQS was sold in the Chinese market in a pure import method and launched in mid-December 2021. Among them, the new EQS has a cruising performance of more than 800 kilometers under CLTC conditions, a wind resistance coefficient of only 0.20, and an MBUX super screen in the car.
Ref: 2022 Beijing Benz EQA 300 4MATIC Debut Special Edition
Ref: 2022 Beijing Benz EQB 350 4MATIC debut special edition
Ref: Large pure electric luxury sedan EQS
(2) The new Daimler China R&D Technology Center was opened
In October 2021, the 20th anniversary of Daimler Greater China Investment Co., Ltd., the new Daimler China R&D Technology Center with a total investment of 1.1 billion yuan was officially opened in Beijing. This means that Mercedes-Benz will further focus on the needs of Chinese customers, and will continue to expand the layout of research and development, production and procurement in China, and the importance of the Chinese automotive market to the entire Mercedes-Benz brand is self-evident.
On October 20, 2021, the new Daimler China R&D Technology Center was officially opened in Beijing
(3) Obtained the international certification of the global conditional automatic driving (L3) system
In mid-December 2021, the Mercedes-Benz L3 autonomous driving system passed the technical regulation approval of the German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), becoming the first automotive company in the world to be certified by the UN-R157 regulation.
Mercedes-Benz officials said that its S-Class and EQS two large-scale sedan products will be the first to be equipped with L3 level automatic driving system; in Germany, the first Mercedes-Benz S-Class with intelligent pilot system will be delivered to customers in the first half of 2022.
This means that in the future in the Chinese market, Mercedes-Benz will continue to strengthen the intelligent and digital development of product technology and service experience, and ultimately allow Chinese consumers to benefit from it.
(4) Optimize the five "star" charging service
In the face of the growing customer demand for electric vehicles in the Chinese market, Mercedes-Benz and dealers continue to optimize the five-star charging service, which has now covered multiple application scenarios such as home charging, public charging, urban hotspots, roadside assistance, exclusive charging, etc., and launched an appointment-based "one-click power-on" service, and the "plug and charge" service will soon be launched. By 2021, the five "star" charging service has covered more than 365,000 public charging piles across the country, and the brand's exclusive charging service has been settled in 407 star stations in 106 cities.
(5) Provide convenient digital services
In 2021, Mercedes-Benz launched auto-machine digital products including AutoNavi custom navigation based on the usage scenarios of Chinese users; in addition, the digital end-to-end financial loan process has also been officially launched, and it is reported that customers can complete auto finance loan services within 10 minutes.
※ 2022 Mercedes-Benz brand Product Planning Outlook for the Chinese Market
In 2022, Mercedes-Benz will continue to accelerate the landing of electric transformation in the Chinese market. According to official sources, Mercedes-Benz will launch 21 new models in the Chinese market in 2022, including 8 pure electric and plug-in hybrid models.
(1) Released vision EQXX concept car
First, on January 4, 2022, on the eve of the opening of the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2022), Mercedes-Benz's new pure electric concept car VISION EQXX officially debuted in the world.
Ref: Mercedes Vision EQXX concept car
According to the official data, the VISION EQXX concept car is equipped with a large number of recyclable materials, the wind resistance coefficient is as low as 0.17, and the mileage of a single charge exceeds 1,000 kilometers. At the same time, the model also uses human brain bionic technology. At present, some of the functions applied in the VISION EQXX concept car have been applied to the production car, and more advanced technologies will be installed in the mass production Mercedes-Benz models.
(2) EQE will be listed in China
It was also on Mercedes-Benz Night on the eve of the 2021 Munich Motor Show that the Mercedes-Benz EQE was officially released for the first time. The Mercedes-Benz EQE is the first pure electric sedan built on the EVA platform and produced in China by Mercedes-Benz EQ, which will be launched in China in 2022.
Ref: Mercedes EQE
(3) Other vehicle actions
In 2022, plug-in hybrid models from C-class cars, S-class cars and other models will be launched, thus providing a richer product selection for Chinese users in different market segments.
In addition, the mercedes-Maybach S 680 4MATIC Couture premiere will also be available in 2022.
In addition, Mercedes-AMG will usher in its 55th anniversary in 2022, and some "luxury performance" models, including Mercedes-AMG SL 63, will also be launched, especially the first Mercedes-AMG electric model, the "Mercedes-AMG EQS 53 4MATIC+", which will also enter the Chinese market, which is a visual embodiment of the Accelerated Pace of Electrification of the Mercedes-Benz brand.
※ Editor's Comments:
When Mercedes-Benz, which "invented the car", also announced that it had begun to transform to "all-electric", it meant that the trend of electrification of automobiles could not be reversed. However, compared with some auto companies that are already in the front, Mercedes-Benz's action in electrification transformation is obviously not fast enough. Now that 2022 has arrived, as Chinese consumers, we will also have the opportunity to reach more electric vehicles or plug-in hybrid vehicles built by the Mercedes-Benz brand. This is quite positive for the energy transition of the entire country in the automotive products, let's wait and see.