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Discontinued Model?
The Mercedes A-Class (here the production in Rastatt)
Photo: Uli Deck / picture alliance / dpa
According to a media report, the car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz is to remove its A-Class from the range in the coming years.
The "Handelsblatt" reported on Monday, citing corporate circles, that the A-Class should be completely discontinued around 2025.
There will be no successor for the variant as a hatchback or as an extended sedan.
The carmaker brought the A-Class onto the market in 1997.
According to the report, the Stuttgart carmaker is also phasing out its B-Class.
Accordingly, both model series are considered unprofitable.
According to the "Handelsblatt", the changes will lead to higher entry-level prices for a Mercedes, from currently less than 30,000 euros to around 40,000 euros.
According to the newspaper, the carmaker itself refused an official statement on the A-Class.
Small car segment under pressure
There had been repeated speculation in the past that production would be phased out.
Mercedes had previously announced that in the future it would focus production primarily on very high-priced models in the luxury segment.
From the manufacturer's point of view, this is a logical step.
More money can be made with cars from the upper segment.
According to estimates by the Institute for the Automotive Industry (IfA), premium car maker Porsche recently had an average profit margin of 17,600 euros per vehicle, Mercedes only around 5800 euros per car.
Mercedes wants to change that.
The sales share of the so-called top-end segment is to be increased by 60 percent by 2026 compared to 2019.
Cheaper models hardly play a role in planning anymore.
For manufacturers, small and compact cars are only profitable if they are sold in large numbers.
But the small car sales figures are declining.
Around 2019, Mercedes sold more than 500,000 units of the entry-level A and B-Class series worldwide.
In 2021 there were still 322,800 cars of these types.
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