Mercedes only for the rich?
Affordable models are gone
Created: 05/27/2022, 09:56 am
By: Marcus Efler
Back to the future - in Swabian: After experiments as a mobility group and compact car provider, Mercedes-Benz wants to devote itself again only to luxury bodies.
Stuttgart – Mercedes-Benz is regarded as the inventor of the automobile, so it can look back on a long history, now 136 years old.
The company has changed more frequently than any other car manufacturer.
Up until the 1980s, the Stuttgart-based company grew primarily as a manufacturer of luxurious, high-quality and also expensive limousines.
That only changed in 1982 with the then so-called "Baby-Benz", the Mercedes 190 E, which expanded the model range downwards.
It continued with the C, B and A class, the models continued to shrink until finally the Smart.
Mercedes only for the rich?
Affordable models are gone
In between, they also wanted to be a technology group that could do everything from an iron to a space station, so they incorporated the electronics supplier AEG.
Then there was a "marriage in heaven" (ex-boss Jürgen Schrempp) with US manufacturer Chrysler with the aim of becoming a full-line global supplier.
The last attempt to be more than an ordinary car manufacturer was the transformation into a mobility group, it just ended with the sale of the rental car service Share Now (operated jointly with BMW) to competitor Stellantis.
EO Ola Källenius (52) outlined how things will continue now: "The company will focus even more on the luxury segment, further upgrade the product portfolio, accelerate the path to the all-electric future and is striving for structurally higher profitability".
Mercedes only for the rich?
AMG and Maybach are strengthened
Leaving the part with “fully electric” is the Mercedes-Benz Group, as “Daimler” (Swabian slang) was officially called, back in the 70s – as a manufacturer of mainly expensive cars. They want the “most desirable cars in the world build the world”, Källenius postulated, i.e. S-classes and electric, self-propelled super limousines like the EQS.
Mercedes boss Ola Källenius wants to focus the traditional group even more on luxury.
(Iconic image) © Mercedes-Benz AG – Communications
The expensive sub-brands Maybach and Mercedes-AMG are also to be significantly strengthened.
The AMG Vision study of an electric super sports car gives quite specific insights into what future battery models for the luxury market will look like.
Particularly lavishly equipped versions of Stromern such as the Mercedes EQS SUV will soon be marketed under the Maybach label (which currently stands for pimped S-classes).
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Mercedes only for the rich?
Compact cars and station wagons on the hit list
Mercedes locates the customers for these vehicles in the USA, Arabia and above all China.
A particularly comfortable electric model is also being developed especially for the Middle Kingdom.
The need of German and European customers for high-quality but more compact models now plays a much smaller role.
Even if the brand with the star speaks full-bodiedly of “Entry Luxury”: the compact cars of the A and B classes obviously don’t generate enough returns.
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Because the portfolio of the entry-level series is to be cut from the current seven to just four models.
The C-Class will be significantly upgraded, but affordable basic versions may be dropped.
It is still unclear which models it hits (the Smart, after all, lives on, albeit enlarged, as a Chinese production).
It was already known some time ago that Mercedes wants to phase out its station wagon versions.
The end of the taxi version of the E-Class also fits the new luxury claim.
In the 1970s, however, the coexistence of mid-range cabs and super limousines like the Mercedes-Benz Pullman was not a problem.
