Mercedes continues to struggle as global sales fell 6% in Q1. The company was hammered by a 27% decline in China. Automaker boasts about EVs, but wants you to forget some. We’re nearly a third of the way through April, but first quarter sales data continues to trickle out. Some of the latest numbers are from Mercedes and they’re painting a mixed picture. Starting in the United States, Q1 passenger car retail sales fell approximately 3% to around 70,000 units. Unfortunately, it’s hard to get an accurate picture of things as the automaker no longer breaks sales down by model. Instead, the company now lumps vehicles together and cherry picks numbers that it likes. With that massive and annoying caveat aside, Mercedes said they had a “strong performance despite significant market headwinds.” Maybach sales jumped 22%, while the G-Class saw a 16% increase. The SL received a 47% boost, while the GLC and GLE were up 17% and 19%, respectively. Mercedes also claimed that “customer interest and excitement surrounding the CLA continues to build across the U.S. market.” However, the company declined to provide numbers, so they were presumably pretty bad. The automaker stopped short of confirming this, but implied the situation will improve as “wider availability” is expected in the second quarter as they originally prioritized European sales. Mercedes US Retail Sales Q1 Q1 2026Diff.Mercedes USA Passenger Cars70,000-3%Mercedes Vans USA8,500-6%Total Sales78,500-3% SWIPE The firm didn’t even bother mentioning the EQE, EQE SUV, EQS, or EQS SUV. This implies sales were as hot as an Anchorage dumpster fire in January, but surely a yoke will turn things around. On the van side of the equation, sales fell 6% to roughly 8,500 units. The automaker could barely feign interest, but said they remain “focused on delivering versatile, premium van solutions that support evolving business needs.” That’s meaningless nonsense, but at least we can look forward to the new VLE and VLS. The latter is getting an ultra-luxurious Maybach variant that promises private jet levels of comfort. Sales Down Globally As Well Zooming out, global passenger car sales fell 6% in the first quarter to around 419,400 units. This came despite a 9% increase in EVs, which found around 44,300 takers. Speaking of which, the automaker said the “new electric GLC has generated more orders in the first three months than any other electric vehicle in our history.” They added order books for the CLA, GLB, and GLC EVs are “filled well into the second half of the year.” EVs weren’t the only bright spot as European orders for the facelifted S-Class were “above expectations.” The automaker is also expecting to receive a boost from the updated GLE and GLS. Confusingly, the global release said American car sales climbed 20% to 81,100 units. The company noted these are rounded “preliminary figures,” but that’s significantly more than the 70,000 mentioned earlier. However, this appears to be a case of retail sales vs overall numbers. This, combined with a lack of model level details, results in a confusing maze of piecemeal information that – at times – seems contradictory. Regardless, the brand is tanking hard in China as sales were down 27% to around 111,600 units. When it comes to vans, global sales fell 3% to approximately 80,300 units. Sales of EVs spiked 29%, but Mercedes only sold 6,100. Mercedes Global Sales Q1 Q1 2026Diff.Mercedes-Benz Group499,700-6%– thereof BEVs50,400+11% Mercedes-Benz Cars419,400-6%– thereof BEVs44,300+9% Mercedes-Benz Cars sales by segment* – Top-End61,500-5%– Core248,000-6%– Entry109,800-7% Mercedes-Benz Cars sales by regions and markets Europe**158,400+7%– thereof Germany49,300+9%Asia153,500-23%– thereof China111,600-27%North America***89,600+16%– thereof U.S.81,100+20%Rest of World17,900-14% SWIPE
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