Mercedes-Benz will stop selling the A-Class in the U.S. market by the end of the year. The decision was made four years after its launch, and sluggish sales were the reason.
Mercedes-Benz issued a statement on February 11 saying that "the A-Class will exit the U.S. market after the 2022 model year." The decision that GLA SUVs will replace Class A is the result of our ongoing efforts to simplify our product strategy. ”
The current A-Class, which has been on the market for the first time in about four years since it went on sale in the U.S. in 2019, is a small sedan that is trying to expand its market share in the U.S. at a relatively low price, and is a cheap weapon. In its first year on the market, it attracted the favor of young consumers for Mercedes-Benz, achieving a good sales performance of 17,641 units.
However, sales plummeted to less than 10,000 units as COVID-19 and semiconductor issues hit the global automotive industry, falling to 11,732 units in 2020 and 8,108 units last year.
New customers are also turning their attention to buying SUVs rather than sedans with low space utilization, continuing to assess the difficulty of recovering sales. Of the actual sales volume, 26,677 A-class-based GLB SUVs were sold in the same period, a gap of more than three times.
In addition, according to the analysis, Mercedes-Benz simplified the sales strategy of the bloated model lineup by increasing the sales margin of individual best-selling models, resulting in the suspension of sales of A-segment sedans.
The A-Class will retire from the American-style favorite wear and will be replaced by the hatchback GLA and the 7-seat GLB. Unlike the sluggish A-Class, the compact SUV lineup continues to maintain solid performance, with annual sales of more than 20,000 units.
The CLA was introduced as an A-Class coupe-based four-door sedan and will remain so. However, as with the A-class, sales have decreased year by year, with sales of 6822 vehicles last year, dominating, and the prospect of A-class following the trend is promising.
The downturn in the Mercedes-Benz A-Class in the U.S. market has not affected sales in the Chinese market. Although the Mercedes-Benz A-Class is not counted as the main model that sells well in the Chinese market. But still relying on low prices, it has become the first step for many young people to realize their Mercedes-Benz dreams.
Its space is not large, the power is not strong, the configuration is not high, compared with the joint venture brand medium-sized car with the same price of about 200,000, Mercedes-Benz A-class seems to be only left with the big tri-fork star logo on the front of the car.