Given the difficult market environment, the car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz does not expect any major jumps this year. Group sales are expected to be at the previous year’s level, the DAX group announced when presenting the results for the past year. Mercedes expects its operating result (EBIT) to be slightly below the previous year’s level this year.
Mercedes delivered a very solid result in a challenging environment in 2023, said CEO Ola Källenius. Sales rose by two percent to 153.2 billion euros. But the company felt the effects of increased costs due to inflation and disruptions in the supply chain. Group operating profit fell by around four percent to 19.7 billion euros. The bottom line is that consolidated earnings fell by almost two percent to 14.5 billion euros.
Källenius struck a new note when it came to e-mobility. In the past, the CEO never tired of emphasizing the car manufacturer’s ambitions in this regard. He was happy to explain that Mercedes wanted to make its cars fully electric by the end of this decade. Always accompanied by the addition that this applies wherever market conditions allow it.
“Strategic flexibility”
On Thursday, Källenius highlighted the car manufacturer’s “strategic flexibility” when it comes to combustion engines. Accordingly, Mercedes will be able to respond to customer needs well into the 30s. As a company you need double protection, said Källenius. The pace of transformation was determined by market conditions and customer wishes, it said. According to Källenius, nothing will change in “Ambition 2039”, the Stuttgart-based sustainability strategy, according to which the entire new vehicle fleet should be CO2-neutral by 2039.
The company expects to achieve up to 50 percent of total sales with fully electric cars and plug-in hybrids in the second half of this decade. Here too, the group was more optimistic.
In any case, the group is not expecting a major increase in its electric cars this year. These should make up a share of 19 to 21 percent. In 2023 the proportion was almost 20 percent. In the passenger car division, i.e. excluding vans, Mercedes sold just over two million vehicles last year. A good 400,000 of them were fully electric or plug-in hybrids.
Around 91,000 of the company’s employees in Germany can look forward to this. This year you should also receive a bonus of up to 7,300 euros with the salary in April.
