Deliveries of Mercedes-Benz plug-in hybrid and electric passenger cars reached a record 227,458 units (+69.3%) of which 48,936 (21.5%) were Mercedes-EQ battery electric passenger cars (BEV) (+154.8%). Including smart and Mercedes-Benz Vans, total BEV sales rose above 99,000 units (+90.3%).

Since the EQS went on sale in August 2021, orders for the electric flagship reached 16,370. The retail launch in the two largest markets—the United States and China—started in December, providing a further boost to customer orders.

Overall Mercedes-Benz Cars delivered 2,093,476 vehicles (-5.0%) between January and December 2021, as a lack of semiconductors delayed the supply of vehicles despite strong demand for passenger cars and vans in all segments and across all regions. As a result, sales in the fourth quarter decreased by -24.7%.

Mercedes-Benz is making every effort to ensure that surging customer orders can be fulfilled as soon as possible. The date when a customer placed an order is taken into consideration when scarce chips are allocated for vehicle production. The semiconductor supply situation remains volatile and the shortage is expected to impact the upcoming quarters in terms of production and sales.

Deliveries of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class rose by 40% to 87,064 units, with sales in China accounting for 35.5% of global demand while sales of the G-Class surged to a new record of 41,174 vehicles and deliveries of Mercedes-AMG models reached 145,979 (+16.7%). Mercedes-Maybach sales increased to 15,730 units (+50.7%), boosted by China where Mercedes-Maybach cars are selling at a rate of more than 900 a month.

Mercedes-Benz passenger car sales by regions and markets. Sales of Mercedes-Benz in the Asia-Pacific region fell to 1,009,763 (-1.6%) between January and December reaching 758,863 units (-2%) in China. In Europe, sales reached 696,136 (-11.2%) of which Germany accounted for 213,105 units (-25.5%) while sales in the North America region totaled 318,456 units (+0.3%) with 276,102 passenger cars delivered to customers in the US (+0.4%).

Based on internal calculations, Mercedes-Benz is on track to meet its European new car fleet average emissions targets (including European Union, Norway and Iceland) for the year 2021. For the year 2022 a further decrease in emissions is expected, as sales of plug-in and battery electric vehicles continue to accelerate.

Mercedes-Benz Vans: Sales of Commercial Vans increased in 2021. Sales of commercial vans rose 2.6% in 2021 to 334,210 units, thanks to strong demand in the first half of 2021 and from China and the United States in particular, where sales rose 11.3% and 4.8% respectively. In Europe, Spain emerged as a strong market with deliveries up 23.2% last year. In the US, where especially the Sprinter was again one of the business drivers, 53,472 units (Sprinter and Metris) were sold.

In the 4^th quarter, semiconductor supply bottlenecks caused high customer demand to be met only with a delay. Deliveries of commercial vans fell 12.9% compared to the strong prior-year quarter, which was characterized by corona-related catch-up effects. Globally 90,532 Sprinter, Vito and Citan were delivered, with sales down in Europe as well as in the USA and Canada. In China though, sales rose 10.1% compared with the prior-year quarter.

More than 9,000 electric vans were sold for commercial use last year, doubling the number compared to 2020 and further growing the share of electric vehicles in the commercial van fleet. The eVito panel van, launched in December, will convince further customers to drive electrically in 2022 with an additional battery variant and the standard fast charging function.