Than usual most of the workforce at Mercedes will be sent on vacation earlier before Christmas, the premium car brand is struggling with such losses, they said in Germany.
It’s the holiday season for employees this time will start from December 16 – at which time production will stop in the main plant, which saves significant operating costs.
Premium cars are not sold, we need to cut back
This is necessary because the luxury brand’s profit decline was also high in the third quarter.
From July to the end of September, Mercedes is reported to have consolidated its profits fell by more than half, to around 1.7 billion euros compared to the same period of the previous year, with a return on sales of 4.7 percent.
The weak performance of the Stuttgart car manufacturer was also contributed by the fact that the electric car stock was sold to dealers at steep discounts, which undercut profitability.
Harald Wilhelm, CFO of Mercedes-Benz Group AG at the Mercedes headquarters in Baden-Württemberg
Because of this Harald Wilhelm CFO has just announced that at group level, savings opportunities are examined in all areas, since this year they have already suffered a 31 percent drop in profit. Overall sales were bad – in particular, pure electric cars in the upper price segment barely sold.
USA: Polar opinion on hybrids
Many electric cars are “sz.r”, but hybrid models are the worst of all – reported in a podcast interview, Peter Rawlinson, head of the American e-car manufacturer Lucid Motors, says that his compatriots are rightly critical of the manufacturers there. According to him, it “sucks” that although many people drive electric cars in the USA, the vast majority still swear by internal combustion engines. Last year, the registration of new electric cars in the United States reached a market share of 9.2 percent, while the share in Germany was 14.6 percent.
Freedom from coercion and vetting roll off the conveyor belt
As we have written about several times, the German car industry is in a difficult situation several brands have already announced cost-cutting measures, while at Mercedes they also focus on increasing efficiency with a frugal business policy.
The planned measures are already concrete in certain areas.
One of them is the Südwest Presse report according to in the Sindelfingen plant the workers will be sent on forced leave from mid-December.
Sindelfingen is one of the company’s largest plants in the world and the central competence center for the production of premium vehicles, an important location for research and development within the group. It is manufactured there S-Classthat is E class and Mercedes-Benz EQ series different models.
The early Christmas vacation is already a an integral part of strict austerity measures, but they are also preparing for more far-reaching steps.
For example, they review the planned investmentspurchases are larger standardization and used in factories capacities.
In the coming months, every stone will be turned over – said the finance director, hoping that Mercedes’ earnings could improve next year.
Chinese competition is becoming more and more pressing
Market analysts are responsible for the decline of the traditional German brand in addition to the difficulties of the domestic economy, the weakening Chinese economy is also blamed, especially in the real estate sector which impairs consumers’ desire to buy. Thus, the demand for high-margin luxury e-models also falls well short of expectations in the Chinese market, which has performed well so far – cites the specialist portal Efahrer.com.
They note: it is currently quite common in Europe as well buyers of expensive cars are careful, competitive, cheaper offers from Chinese manufacturers make sales more and more difficult.
The Belgians love e-cars, but the Hungarians don’t
Interest in electric cars varies greatly across Europe. While countries such as Norway, Iceland or Sweden are ahead of everyone else, in Italy, Poland or Hungary almost nothing is felt from the popularity of the technology – writes the German car portal. Germany was also only in the lower middle range last year compared to the EU average of 14.6 percent of new registrations, while interest is growing in neighboring Belgium: according to data from the Traxio mobility association, by September of this year, last year’s sales had already been reached (96 thousand new e-cars). , thanks to the fact that the government supports the purchase of vehicles under 40,000 euros with a bonus of 5,000 euros.
Source: www.economx.hu
