Mercedes Benz expects its xEV car’s shares to rise by 13pc in 2021. It also plans to improve its hybrid family of vehicles, which currently consist of more than 20 models.
The German carmaker’s sales fell by 7.5pc to 2.1 million units in 2020 compared with the prior year. However, its sales in Q42020 inched up by 0.2pc to 615,328 units compared with the same quarter in 2019.
The company’s smart car division’s sales declined by 67.1pc to 38,391 units in 2020 and dropped by 43.5pc in Q4, both compared to the same period of 2019.
Sales in the automaker’s cars division plummeted by 10.3pc to 2.2 million units in 2020 from the previous year, while in Q4 2020 sales fell by 1.8pc to 631,713 units from the same quarter of the previous year. Its commercial model vans saw an 8.9pc drop in sales for the full year to 325,771 units from 2019 while in Q4 2020 they rose by 1.7pc to 103,892 units from the same quarter of 2019.
The company’s sales in Europe were down by 16.4pc to 784,183 vehicles in 2020 while its fourth-quarter sales in Europe fell by 3.6pc to 236,599 units, both compared to the same period of 2019. In Asia Pacific, the carmaker’s sales in 2020 increased by 4.7pc to a million units from the previous year while its Q4 2020 sales rose by 12.6pc to 277,712 vehicles. In North America, Mercedes-Benz’s sales declined by 14.7pc to 317,592 units from 2019 while its Q4 2020 sales decreased by 15pc to 78,078 units from Q4 2019.