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this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2026
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Europe
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They sold their soul in China for short term profit.
They never had a long term plan, they just saw the profit they were making in China, given away their technology advantage.
So this is solely the management to be blamed for. During Covid they were making record profits, due to the state paying the employees.
I worked 5 years for Mercedes and over 10 years in German car industry. They always kept laughing at Tesla and Chinese cheap EVs, now look were they are. No one wants the Mercedes expensive EVs...
Exactly what did they sell out? Exactly what technology did China "steal" from Mercedes?
Car manufacturing has been a global business for more than half a century. Should they just ignore a major emerging market?
Yes the Chip shortage had the effect that car prices increased, making each car more profitable to sell.
But the after effect was a near recession and inflation where profits and sales fell back. Only helped partially and regionally subsidizing EV sales.
Doesn't change the fact that Mercedes today make the best electric cars on the market without comparison. So they must have done a heck of a lot more than just laughing.
That's an absolutely moronic claim, A Mercedes CLA is not much more expensive than a VW ID.4 here.
But yes compare to a Fiat 500 Mercedes is expensive, but that doesn't mean they don't have good value.
To get a car certified to be sold in China, you need to get a certification, where you need to provide all technical plans and documents for them to be certified. Most of the time a year later there would be a quite similar looking car from a Chinese brand. Collected data about the car and customer is stored on Chinese servers, where the government has access to.
So I am pretty sure they would never give any of that data to their own manufacturing companies...
Of course they should sell their cars there, but they should have also prepared for what will happen in the long term. They kept selling petrol cars, because they were are the most profitable cars.
Their sales of petrol cars gone down in China the last few years and this is where they make the most profits.
If they make the best cars, why no one wants them? The sales figures don't show it. Teslas are expensive still sell a lot higher volume.
Don't get me wrong, I would hope they do better, as I hate Musk and his Swasticars. I am from Germany and would like our economy doing well, but they should take their fair share, why we are in this situation today.
The management of the German car makers made a bunch of bad decisions and now the employees have to take the burden.
For example an S-class brings about 8000€ of profits, EVs are no way near that. And they sold most of their most profitable cars in China. Now this has gone back a lot and they are missing this income.
If the chain is as you suggest that the Chinese authorities hand over documentation for Chinese manufacturers to copy, that would be an issue for EU.
I don't believe things happened quite the way you suspect. But for instance Xiaomi when they developed the SU7 had European designers on it, and they chose to copy Porsche.
But good design elements have a tendency to spread, and Xiaomi does not make a secret of where their inspiration came from.
You don't have to give the specs to Chinese authorities for that to happen. Every manufacturer can buy a European car, and tear it apart to see how every component is built.
That's happening to everybody, including Chinese car makers. I don't get what you point is with that?
IDK about other countries, but Mercedes seems about as popular as it always was here:
https://fdm.dk/nyheder/nyt-om-trafik-og-biler/elektrisk-bilsalg-elbiler-har-kurs-mod-90-procent
With 3 models in the top 25, it's not exactly bad for a brand that is more expensive than the competitors.
2 models beat Tesla model 3, which is a cheap crap car, and all 3 models beat VW ID.3 which is a very decent car, and they all beat the Chinese Zeekr which is a new darling in the market. In the list 13 models are German brands, which make German cars just beat 50%!!
In fact Mercedes and BMW are the only luxury brands on the list!
Notably Volvo and Polestar are out completely! And that's significant because in Denmark we have always bought many cars from Sweden!
It is also notable that the field is pretty narrow, so although Mercedes is a bit down the list, the sales are not that much behind.
But in China the market is dominated by subsidized Chinese cars, in an exploding market, and in USA tariffs have nearly destroyed the market for cars made in Europe.
So European car makers are not doing great internationally ATM. Not because of incompetence, but because of a very tough even hostile market for European cars.
Yes they can tear it apart, but they would not have all the technical information and so on. Anyway I do not have any proof for that, but I am not feeling confident giving so much information to a country that is trying to takeover so many European industry sectors.
Regarding sales in China. Mercedes sold all their big cars: S/E class and GLS and GLE in China. Same applies for the US.
They are the ones that bring the cash, sales in Europe are not that profitable.
So they now have a problem they still sell high volume but their profits declining. That is all I wanted to say.
That was exactly my point too, and those are because of political circumstances in China and USA, and not because of management, prices or quality.
Yes they have a problem, and that problem is caused by a storm of circumstances management had absolutely no influence over.
That graph doesn't say much about profits, but lists like this one did look very different 10-20 years ago. I'm no expert on the topic, but I have no reason to believe Europe couldn't have done what China did. It's not just because Chinese labour is cheaper that they sell so many cars. I don't know enough to blame it on the management but I do have a feeling they could have done better. Also not a single new European brand selling enough to get on this list. I don't know enough to blame it on politicians, but I also have a feeling they could have done better. I don't mind China "winning", but I sure am disappointed to see EU "losing" this market. Especially Germany is getting some serious hits.
Edit: uploaded the image because it didn't want to be embedded.
Mercedes is about where it is with cars in general.
What is more striking is how many German brands are still in the Top20 for EVs. In terms on none Chinese brands it is Tesla, Volvo(Chinese owned though) and Toyota. There are some massive brands like Ford fully missing on the EV list.
As for Mercedes it is 15 for EVs and 12 for car sales in general. It is not that bad of a position to be in.
This show nothing, Mercedes was always a luxury brand, of course they aren't in the top of the list, they never where.
No didn't mean to imply that just because it isn't at the top of the list it's not selling good products or making money. My point is that the introduction of EVs changed the market and that European brands have not managed to come out on top.
Not true:
https://fdm.dk/nyheder/nyt-om-trafik-og-biler/elektrisk-bilsalg-elbiler-har-kurs-mod-90-procent
German brands alone are 13 out of 25. The only VW owned brand not on the list is Cupra/Seat, maybe because some of their models are made in China?
18 models are European, one brand that has been squeezed out is Hyundai, which used to be a very popular brand, and also Volvo which is made in Sweden and has always been among the favorites here, and they definitely are on top of the EV development with a lot of Chinese help.
With cars coming in from China, Japan and USA, European makers maintain 72% of the market here in Denmark. Where we have a 90% of new cars sold being EV.