Mercedes-Benz has long been considered a luxury car brand, though it’s apparently looking to shift gears a bit.
According to Bloomberg, the car manufacturer is looking to restructure its operations to focus on profitability, not volume, amidst a major global shift to electric vehicles (EVs).
The Daimler AG has said it’s shooting to bring sales back to the mid to high single-digit sales range by 2025. If the sales atmosphere is particularly strong around that time, it hopes to even earn a double-digit profit margin.
The first peek at the production version of the upcoming @MercedesBenz EQS reveals the upmarket electric sedan's front light graphic, which will include an illuminated version of the German car maker's signature three-pointed star badge in selected markets. pic.twitter.com/kdjbMWoMdR
— Greg Kable (@GregKable) October 7, 2020
In a statement, Mercedes CEO Ola Kallenius said, “We have not yet lived up to our full potential in terms of turning volume success into profit growth.”
As Kallenius plans to prioritize profit and pricing rather than volume in the years to come, it’s unclear how the shift will affect the company’s ongoing attempts to win out over BMW in sales.
A recent gas ban on new car sales in California has garnered a reasonable degree of concern for luxury car brands – if companies like Mercedes-Benz want to keep up with the pace of the world, they’ll need to prioritize the shift to EVs. If they don’t, they’ll soon age out as obsolete technology.
If Mercedes can effectively restructure itself to keep up with Tesla and other growing EV companies, it may well survive the shift to sustainable transportation.
