Looking at the German car manufacturers in the first quarter of 2024, the situation seems mostly straightforward. What went well? The volume business with combustion engines. What went badly? Business in the top price range and with electric cars. In view of the geopolitical uncertainties, even the top earners seem to have lost the fun in buying a new vehicle.

Although Volkswagen was able to sell around 6% more cars globally across all brands in the Core volume segment in the opening quarter, the Progressive Group with Audi, Bentley, and Lamborghini, on the other hand, sold 5% less. Porsche's sales shrank by 4%. The VW Group suffered a particularly severe setback in e-cars. The fact that the decline was only around 5,000 units to 136,400 was solely due to the strong increase in China, where sales of the Group's e-cars almost doubled to 41,000. In the important markets of Europe and the USA, however, sales of electric vehicles fell significantly.

The situation is even gloomier for Mercedes. From January to March, only 463,000 cars with the three-pointed star logo were delivered, 8% fewer than in the previous year and a whopping 28% fewer than arch-rival BMW. The former head-to-head race is increasingly becoming a one-sided affair. Even more serious is the fact that the Munich-based company is celebrating success in areas where Mercedes has set its strategic priorities. The number of e-car registrations fell by 8% to 47,500, which is only as much as the decline in Group-wide sales. Meanwhile, sales in the high-priced top-end segment slumped by more than a quarter, which should have had a direct impact on earnings development in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, BMW increased the number of battery-electric cars sold by more than a quarter to 82,700 and at the same time increased sales in the upper price segment by more than a fifth. Mercedes' reference to supply problems with 48-volt batteries therefore smells a lot like an excuse. BMW is breaking ranks with its arguments and is thus putting its competitors on the spot.