Mercedes-Benz threatened to close a plant in Germany and relocate production (unn.ua)

submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by schizoidman@lemmy.zip to c/europe@feddit.org

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Mercedes-Benz management warned that it plans to close one of its plants in Germany and move production to Eastern Europe if employees do not agree to cost-cutting measures. Wirtschaftswoche reports this, citing company sources, with UNN reporting, citing Bild.

According to the publication, management is demanding that employees give up some benefits, including vacation pay and Christmas bonuses, as well as reconsider the 35-hour workweek. Management believes that current conditions are making German plants less competitive amid

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[-] absquatulate@lemmy.world 67 points 6 days ago

"We fucked up managing the company so you will have to take the fall one way or another"

[+] Buffalox@lemmy.world -27 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Blaming management when the truth is the car industry has been in an almost perfect storm for almost a decade.

Global Chip shortage ( Disruption of supply chain, decreasing sales due to slowed production )
Covid ( Hurting sales and production )
Energy crisis in Europe imposed by Russia before they invaded Ukraine ( Increasing production cost )
Increased competition from China ( lowering sales and profits )
Brexit ( Disrupting supply chains, and decreasing sales to UK )
Transition to EV ( Increasing cost of R&D and production due to more models makes production more expensive )
Sanctions against Russia ( Loss of market and the value of investments in supplying the country )
US Tariffs ( Preventing sales to USA )
War in Iran ( Disrupting the economy and economic outlook, lowering car sales globally )

All these issues have direct impact on all European car brands, VW is making EU best selling EV cars, and they too have problems.
But yes the management for the car brand that makes the most energy efficient EV is incompetent.

[-] GarbadgeGoober@feddit.org 31 points 6 days ago

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...

[+] Buffalox@lemmy.world -7 points 6 days ago

They sold their soul in China for short term profit.

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?

During Covid they were making record profits,

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.

They always kept laughing at Tesla and Chinese cheap EVs.

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.

No one wants the Mercedes expensive EVs…

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.

[-] GarbadgeGoober@feddit.org 3 points 6 days ago

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?

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.

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.

Their sales of petrol cars gone down in China the last few years and this is where they make the most profits.

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.

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.

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world -2 points 6 days ago

Most of the time a year later there would be a quite similar looking car from a Chinese brand.

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.

Their sales of petrol cars gone down in China the last few years

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.

[-] GarbadgeGoober@feddit.org 2 points 5 days ago

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.

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

Regarding sales in China. Mercedes sold all their big cars: S/E class and GLS and GLE in China. Same applies for the US.

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.

[-] huppakee@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

No one wants the Mercedes expensive EVs…

https://cleantechnica.com/2026/02/03/global-ev-sales-leaders-top-selling-brands-and-oems/

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.

[-] Melchior@feddit.org 2 points 5 days ago

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.

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

This show nothing, Mercedes was always a luxury brand, of course they aren't in the top of the list, they never where.

[-] huppakee@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

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.

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

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.

[-] B0rax@feddit.org 21 points 6 days ago

Please.

Just look up how much dividends they have payed in the last few years alone (spoiler: it is almost 24 billion € since 2022). This is money that could have been spend innovating, improving and future proofing there vehicle line up.

The death of the combustion engine is nothing new, and yet all of the European car manufacturers hold onto it like it is their only hope.

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world -4 points 6 days ago

IDK if your claim is true you don't provide any sources for it.
If it is I agree that sounds very high for a company with a market cap of only 45 billion.

[-] B0rax@feddit.org 5 points 6 days ago

Sadly I don’t have all the sources right now because I looked it up this morning.

But here is a source for 5 billion for the year 2023. Here is a source for 3.3 billion for the year 2025

Here is another source that has multiple years (although I don’t know if it is trustworthy, but the numbers match with the others).

Also note that in addition to these dividends, mercedes Benz did buy back quite a lot of stock.

So money is really not an issue here.

[-] absquatulate@lemmy.world 18 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I am in fact blaming Daimler management for this, yes. It was back in 2010 or so that Mercedes-Benz bragged about having a full electric line-up by 2015 so they've had 15 full years of head start before the chinese came and started taking their lunch. What did they do in the meantime? They colluded with VAG and BMW to keep diesels in the mix. And yes, they've veen trying to weather a nasty storm recently, but they asked for state support every step of the way ( and received it most often than not, precisely because germany wanted to keep those people employed ). Now I'm not sure how their recent EVs fare, but Daimler has been constantly resistant to change ( going as far as anti-ev propaganda spewed by the CEO making the rounds in right-wing groups ) and that blame lies solely with the company's management.

Edit: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57765113

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world -3 points 6 days ago

They move3d fast, but so did the Chinese. It's a competition, your opp0onent doesn't always do as expected. China came sooner than expected because the Chinese development has been insane. No wonder Mercedes didn't expect them to move that fast.
But the Chinese market is over saturated now, which is why China expands to Europe before expected.

[-] trollercoaster@sh.itjust.works 12 points 6 days ago

You forgot decades of enshittification in order to maximally capitalise on the international luxury market rather than building quality products that earned them the reputation that allowed them to do so in the first place.

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world -2 points 6 days ago

I am not aware of enshitification with Mercedes.
On the contrary I just saw a review the other day of the Mercedes ACL vs Zeeker. The Mercedes was way higher quality, and the assist systems actually work, contrary to Chinese cars, and the efficiency of the Mercedes was 20-25% higher!!
Yes China can build some pretty attractive cars with decent specs, but don't get fooled to think they are of similar quality to any label of German cars.

[-] Bogus007@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 days ago

Do you even know what Mercedes was once standing for and what it lost thanks to the “great management class”? - btw, management means imo people, who generally have little year-long experience in working in a factory, the assembling and design line, but happily demand salaries almost twice or even three times as much as a normal worker (due to some fantasized responsibility) and are quick in suggesting to throw people on the street when economical problems appear. IMHO, these managers are the most expensive and useless group in most if not all industrial branches (we can continue with the DB).

[-] undu@discuss.tchncs.de 22 points 6 days ago

How about if instead executives cut down what they leech?

[-] rottenmummy@lemmy.ml 8 points 6 days ago

But but but... how can they afford their third yacht?!!!!

[-] BigShammy80@feddit.org 11 points 6 days ago

Stop buying German brands! They're blackmailing their employees and that is not ok!

[-] Zacryon@feddit.org 11 points 6 days ago

Management can sure lead by example. (:

[-] tardigrade@scribe.disroot.org 8 points 6 days ago

Every day more or less the same story by OP. The entire industry is in crisis, not just Mercedes-Benz. In China, those three show shrinking profits. This is despite Chinese brands benefiting from tremendous subsidy regulations that have never been available for their global competitors, a cheap workforce through forced labour regimes, which allows them to produce massive overcapacity that Chinese brands then need to sell globally due to a shrinking domestic Chinese market. This overcapacity is a decisive reason for the entire sector's crisis imo.

[-] Kazel@feddit.org 1 points 6 days ago

dann wird der nächste was anderes

this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2026

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