Due to the weak demand in the luxury car market, Mercedes and BMW both saw their sales decline in the third quarter. On October 10, Mercedes-Benz Group released its latest sales report, showing that the group sold a total of 594,600 new cars in the third quarter, a year-on-year decrease of 3%; The decline in Mercedes-Benz Group's sales was mainly due to the Chinese market, which delivered 170,700 new vehicles in the third quarter, down 13% year-on-year, the largest decline in the world. By comparison, Germany fell 7% year-on-year, while United States grew 33% year-on-year. By the end of the third quarter, Mercedes-Benz Group had delivered 1,763,200 new vehicles, down 5% year-on-year, of which Germany was down 13% year-on-year to 149,700, China was down 10% year-on-year to 512,200 units, and United States was up 9% year-on-year. In terms of volume volume, China remains the world's largest single market, accounting for 29% of the Group's total sales.
In addition to Mercedes-Benz, the BMW Group also saw a decline. According to the report, the BMW Group's global sales in the third quarter were 540882, down 13% year-on-year, and BMW's sales in all regions declined, of which the BMW Group's sales in China fell 29.8% to 147691, which was the largest decline in the market, BMW said that it had previously recalled 1.5 million vehicles due to brake system failures, which also affected the delivery data, compared to other markets with a lower decline, of which Germany fell 8.8% and United States fell 9.2%. In the first three quarters, the BMW Group's global sales fell 4.5% to 1754158 units, mainly due to BMW's sluggish sales in China, which fell 13.1% to 523638 units, resulting in a 10.7% decline in the Asian market, while Germany fell 5.1% and United States fell 2.1%.
However, unlike the Mercedes-Benz Group, the BMW Group's electric vehicle business performed well, with pure electric vehicle sales in the third quarter increasing by 10.1% year-on-year to 103,440 units, in stark contrast to Mercedes-Benz, while the cumulative sales of pure electric models in the first three quarters were 294054 units, a year-on-year increase of 19.1%. Previously, Mercedes-Benz and BMW both lowered their annual earnings forecasts. Among them, Mercedes-Benz Automotive's adjusted margin forecast was lowered to "7.5%-8.5%" from 11% previously, as demand in China, the company's largest market, cooled further. The BMW Group expects an EBIT margin of between 6% and 7% in 2024 (previously 8% to 10%) and a return on capital employed (RoCE) of between 11% and 13% (previously 15% to 20%).
All the data points to a setback in Mercedes-Benz and BMW's premium position in the Chinese market, which is another warning sign for the Germany luxury car market, from high production costs and the shift to electric vehicles, to declining demand and increased competitive pressure from other brands. In the future, consumers will turn to new energy vehicles on a large scale, so traditional brands should actively develop new energy vehicle products to fundamentally solve the challenges they face and adapt to the changes in consumer trends. According to the BMW Group's plan, the all-new BMW X3 long-wheelbase version will be delivered in the first quarter of 2025, and the all-new BMW X3 M50 will be introduced to the Chinese market in the second quarter of next year. In the field of pure electric vehicles, BMW's next-generation models will start global production in the second half of next year, and at least six new-generation models will be launched to the market within 24 months after the first model is put into production, and the Chinese R&D team is expected to start road tests of the new-generation models in China next year, and the first new-generation model will officially start production in Shenyang in 2026.
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