STUTTGART, Oct 8 — German car manufacturer Mercedes announced on Wednesday that it had sold 407,200 passenger cars in the third quarter of the year, representing an eight per cent fall compared with the same quarter last year, reported German Press Agency (dpa).
Outside China, sales rose by one per cent year-on-year.
However, the flagging Chinese market, which is particularly important for Mercedes, continues to cause problems, with sales there falling by 31 per cent.
Mercedes attributed the decline to a persistently challenging passenger car market environment and intense competition.
Sales of electric cars, on the other hand, were on the rise.
Mercedes achieved a record sales figure for fully electric passenger cars in the third quarter, selling 68,400 vehicles worldwide.
This represents an increase of 61 per cent compared with the same quarter last year.
In Europe, sales of electric cars rose by as much as 78 per cent compared with the same quarter last year.
This means that one in three Mercedes-Benz passenger cars sold in Europe is now fully electric.
Last year, Mercedes sold just over 1.8 million passenger cars, representing a nine per cent decline compared with 2024.
In the medium term, the passenger car division is set to return to sales of around two million vehicles.
The company has not yet specified exactly when this target is to be achieved, but it is believed this will happen before the end of the decade. — Bernama-dpa
