With the release of a new strategy, can Mercedes-Benz, the "luxury brother", continue to lead?

Every time the era changes, there are dangers and opportunities at the same time. Only by accurately grasping the pulse of the market can we stay on the forefront of the trend.

While the Chinese people were still enjoying the National Day holiday leisurely, Mercedes-Benz held a press conference on October 6, local time in Germany.

Different from regular press conferences in the past, in addition to reporting recent results, Mercedes-Benz also announced a lot of important information including improving profitability, reshaping its product lineup, and new strategies related to electrification.

The status of the Chinese market is gradually improving

At the press conference, Mercedes-Benz announced its third quarter results, which highlighted the impressive market performance of the Chinese market.

In the third quarter of this year, Mercedes-Benz sold 223,631 units in China, a year-on-year increase of 23.4%. In the first three quarters, a total of 569,698 new cars were delivered in China, a year-on-year increase of 8.3%.

Ola?K?llenius, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Daimler AG and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mercedes-Benz AG

In the United States, Mercedes-Benz’s sales during the same period fell by 9.4% year-on-year. %, and the further recovery of demand in the Chinese market has not only made up for the losses suffered by the brand in other major markets around the world due to the impact of the epidemic this year, but has even helped it achieve growth to a certain extent.

According to data recently released by Daimler, driven by Chinese market demand, global sales of Mercedes-Benz brand passenger cars reached 614,000 units in the third quarter of this year, a year-on-year increase of 3.9%, achieving the first sales volume this year. year-on-year growth.

In recent years, Mercedes-Benz has firmly ranked first among luxury brands in the Chinese market. Thanks to the brand's series of precise product layout and launch in China, many star models have performed very well in the market. Eye-catching——

In the first three quarters, the sedan family, mainly C-class, E-class and S-class, continued to strengthen its market competitiveness, contributing about half of the brand's performance in China;

SUV models achieved double-digit growth, and the main model GLC SUV performed particularly strongly. According to online statistics, from January to August, GLC was the highest-selling luxury SUV in China. The cumulative sales volume in the first eight months of this year has exceeded 100,000 units;

With the launch of the new GLA SUV, the new CLA four-door coupe, and the new CLA five-door hunting coupe, all 7 models of the new generation family have landed in the Chinese market, becoming a brand-new brand. Sales volume contributes about 1/5 share;

EQ electric technology brand is favored by more customers, and sales of EQC pure electric SUV continue to rise in China;

……

It is foreseeable that Mercedes-Benz will put the Chinese market in a very important position now and in the future.

Released the "2039 Vision" to comprehensively accelerate the electrification process

As the Chinese market occupies an increasingly important position in the global map of the Mercedes-Benz brand, it is about The formulation of the strategic route for the brand's future development will also be tilted towards China to a certain extent. Among them, electrification is a very specific manifestation.

According to statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in 2019, total sales of new energy vehicles (pure electric + plug-in hybrid) in China reached 1.206 million units, ranking firmly in the world's largest new energy vehicle market. Such a market size will largely determine the development direction of global vehicle electrification in the future. In the future, if any car company wants to develop steadily in the Chinese market, it is crucial to increase efforts to promote the electrification of its products.

As a result, more and more powerful brands have begun to take action - BMW plans to provide 25 electric vehicles by 2023; Nissan plans to sell 1 million electric vehicles and e-vehicles annually by 2022 -Power models; Toyota has announced that it will achieve the goal of "annual sales of new energy models to 5.5 million units" five years ahead of schedule by 2025; Volkswagen Group plans to deliver 22 million pure electric vehicles globally by 2028;…

Of course, Mercedes-Benz will not be willing to lag behind others.

At this press conference, Mercedes-Benz also announced its future electrification ideas.

According to the plan, starting from 2021, Mercedes-Benz’s four new pure electric models including EQS, EQE, EQS SUV and EQE SUV based on the large pure electric vehicle architecture (EVA) platform will be launched one after another; Mercedes -AMG, Mercedes-Maybach, Mercedes-Benz G-Class and other sub-series will also join the electrification queue; the new Mercedes-Benz modular designed for compact and mid-size cars The MMA platform is also under intensive development;

EQS is the first representative of the EVA platform and will be launched in 2021 with a WLTP electric range of more than 700 kilometers.

"By 2030, while electric models will account for more than half of new car sales, our investment in internal combustion engine models will decrease rapidly. By then, the number of traditional internal combustion engine models will be reduced by 70%." At the press conference At the meeting, Markus Sch?fer, member of the board of directors of Daimler AG responsible for group research and development, member of the board of directors and chief operating officer of Mercedes-Benz AG, expressed that Mercedes-Benz is fully accelerating electrification. great determination. By 2039, Mercedes-Benz will strive to achieve carbon neutrality in its new car lineup.

Ola? K?llenius, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Daimler AG and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mercedes-Benz AG, said, "By releasing a new strategy, we have announced our goal of 'Vision 2039' It has a clear plan to electrify its entire product lineup and is determined to fully achieve carbon neutrality in its business.”

Increase revenue and reduce expenditure to improve profitability

However, it is difficult to judge whether a company’s development is healthy. , we should not just focus on whether the product is sold in large quantities, or whether the strategy is ambitious enough, but whether the company has the ability to make profits - only when the company achieves profitability can it have enough funds to invest in research and development and recruit talents. Improving services and building brands will make it possible for everything to remain sustainable.

As a car brand with a history of more than 130 years, Mercedes-Benz certainly knows how to survive as a company. Therefore, when Mercedes-Benz is seriously thinking about how to continue to lead in the next 20 years, "improving profitability" has also become an important topic in its mind.

This is Mercedes-Benz's plan - by optimizing the balance between sales volume, price and channel mix, to ensure that the marginal revenue of existing and future product lineups is increased; at the same time, Mercedes-Benz will also allocate product development resources and Capital focuses on the most profitable sectors of the market and its most competitive market segments to ensure that companies have stronger structural profitability.

Specifically, in terms of related measures, Mercedes-Benz will focus on services and accessories, as well as OTA remote wireless upgrades to subscription services, striving to achieve stronger user loyalty, higher repurchase rates and rapid recurring revenue growth. By 2025, Mercedes-Benz will have 20 million fully connected vehicles, and the continued growth of its connected business will also bring important profit opportunities in the future.

In addition, in the process of improving profitability, it also promotes Mercedes-Benz's self-evolution in the field of automotive software. It is reported that Mercedes-Benz will launch its own MB.OS operating system. This operating system will be developed internally by the company and is expected to be released in 2024. Through this operating system, Mercedes-Benz retains control over all vehicle architecture and user interfaces. The development of its own software can help vehicles achieve faster and more frequent updates, and it will be designed around an upgradeable architecture to control future research and development expenses.

Increase profit opportunities and control operating costs. This series of "increase revenue and reduce expenditure" measures all point to the same goal: by 2025, achieve fixed cost reduction by cutting expenditures, adjusting production capacity and reducing personnel costs. A reduction of more than 20% in 2019; capital and R&D expenditures will be reduced by more than 20% compared with 2019; variable costs will decrease by a net annual decrease of 1% compared with 2019 by increasing and extending the material cost savings target. The above targets do not include the possible impact of an increase in the proportion of electrified models.

Under the great changes of the times, the "new four modernizations" have become the development trend of the automobile industry. Only by following the development of the trend can we survive in the great waves. This time, Mercedes-Benz, a century-old brand that has given birth to automobiles, continues to inject power and nutrients into itself by optimizing its product lineup, accelerating electrification, and improving profitability. It may be in the next 20 years or even more. Continue to lead the way for a long time.

Article?|?Luyouqi

This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.