Text/Paula
As the first Mercedes-Benz Group (hereinafter referred to as Mercedes-Benz) to release its 2021 financial report in the BBA, it is more than half a month ahead of BMW Group and Audi Group. If you sum up this financial report in three words, it is: earned!
Before reading this financial report, we must first clarify one thing, that is, on February 1, 2022, "Daimler AG" was officially renamed "Mercedes-Benz Group AG", which means that the financial report released by Mercedes-Benz is divided into business that continues to operate and business that terminates operation.
From the financial report, Mercedes-Benz's turnover for the whole of last year was 168 billion euros, an increase of 9% year-on-year, and net profit (excluding Daimler's truck and bus related business) was 14.2 billion euros, an increase of 255% year-on-year.
In contrast, Mercedes-Benz's sales in 2021, passenger cars and light commercial vehicles sold a total of 2,330,169 units last year, down 5% year-on-year. How did Mercedes-Benz achieve a surge in net profit in the face of declining sales? Let's take a look at it from a few aspects!
The first is a record sales record for high-end models. Mercedes-Benz's high-end models are probably familiar to everyone, including Mercedes-Maybach, Mercedes-AMG, G-Class, S-Class, GLS SUVs and EQS and other well-known models, of which Maybach sales were 16,000 units, up 50.7% year-on-year; AMG models sold 145,000 units, an increase of 16.7% year-on-year. Mercedes-Benz G-Class sold 41,000 units, while setting a new annual sales record; in 2021, mercedes-Benz S-Class models delivered 87,000 units worldwide, an increase of 40% year-on-year, and GLS SUVs and EQS both set new sales records in 2021.
Among them, the Chinese market can be said to have contributed a lot, and the Chinese market will occupy about 36.93% of Mercedes-Benz's global passenger car sales in 2021. High-end models achieved impressive results in China last year, taking maybach as an example, since June last year, except for October, monthly sales in China have exceeded 1,000 units. With mercedes-benz high-end models selling so high, it makes up for the decline in operating income caused by the overall decline in sales, and also brings revenue to a new height.
As we all know, 2021 can be described as a grim year for car companies, affected by the shortage of global semiconductor supply and the new crown epidemic, including a series of old car companies such as Audi, the sales volume of a series of old car companies such as Audi has declined to varying degrees as Mercedes-Benz, and Mercedes-Benz has become a midfield sample for the transformation of automobile giants, which also has a lot to do with the strategic adjustment of Mercedes-Benz's financial brand.
In October 2020, Mercedes-Benz unveiled a new strategy that covers six areas, the first of which is "re-focusing on luxury positioning", making luxury an integral part of products, customer interactions and digital technologies. And to create the world's most desirable automotive products, it seems that this strategy is implemented well, Mercedes-Benz from sales growth to profit growth of the goal has been achieved, high-end car sales can confirm that Mercedes-Benz's luxury brand appeal has been at the top of the BBA.
We know that the net profit is the difference between the total profit and the income tax expense, and the total profit is directly proportional to the income, and the cost and expense are inversely proportional, so the rise in the net profit of Mercedes-Benz is not only related to the rise in total profits, but also related to the decline in costs. It is reported that in fiscal 2021, the fixed cost of Mercedes-Benz's global passenger car business fell by 16% year-on-year, so the net profit performance of Mercedes-Benz was so outstanding in terms of comprehensive revenue and cost.
Looking forward to 2022, Mercedes-Benz and Audi are invariably cautious, and Kang Linsong, chairman of the board of daimler agchaft and chairman of the board of directors of Mercedes-Benz AG, said that although the market demand for Mercedes-Benz passenger car products is expected to remain strong, the group is cautious about sales expectations overall, considering the uncertainty caused by the current supply chain tension. It is worth mentioning that according to the plan, Mercedes-Benz will focus on the electric vehicle market this year, launching Pure Electric Vehicle Models such as Mercedes-Benz EQE and the new Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV and Mercedes-Benz VISION EQXX. So how the mercedes-benz market will perform in 2022, let's wait and see.