Mercedes Benz and BMW reported their sales figure for Q1 of 2020 with a difference of just 21 units, with Mercedes leading. There are quite a few reasons how BMW was able to close the gap.
Mercedes Benz announced their sales figure for the first quarter of 2020 (January-March) some time ago and the brand didn’t sell as many cars as they would have wanted to. Sales in March were obviously impacted by the nationwide lockdown but there were other reasons too which did not go in the carmakers favor in Q1 of 2020. Surprisingly, BMW also released their sales figure for Q1 the following day and they both were neck and neck. Mercedes-Benz sold a total of 2,386 units of vehicles in between January to March while BMW sold 2,365 units of vehicles.
Both brands are almost neck and neck with their sales figure, with just a difference of 21 units. Mercedes Benz is the best selling luxury carmaker in India and they usually maintain a significant gap with the second spot. Although the competition seems fiercely close, the true picture is somewhat different. Sales for Mercedes Benz were hindered for quite a few reasons as we shall explain.
With the BS6 emission deadline approaching, Mercedes Benz were quick to sell out most of their BS4 stock quite early. In fact, for models like the CLA, GLA and GLS, Mercedes had exhausted the BS4 stock way back in December of 2019. All three models were due a generation change this year and so Mercedes Benz did not introduce BS6 versions of the outgoing models. That means they did not have these models on sale in the first quarter of the year.
According to sources, models like the CLA and GLA contribute about 1000 units per quarter and with these major selling products not in the lineup, Mercedes were sure to lose out on sales numbers. Additionally, Mercedes-Benz only had two months to retail the brand-new GLE, which was launched at the end of January and already has a waiting period of three months. Aggregating all these factors, it now makes sense how BMW was able to close the gap to Mercedes Benz to such a small margin.
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As for BMW, they too had a couple of important launches lined up like the 8 Series Gran Coupe and new X5 M. However, with the lockdown in place, these now stand suspended. They also suffered a major setback with the unfortunate passing away of two of their key executives – President and CEO Rudratej Singh and Director of Sales Mihir Dayal. As for Mercedes Benz, they will continue to suffer from the absence of some key models for atleast another quarter but they are sure to open up the gap in sales by the end of this year.
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The other German manufacturer of this trio, Audi, too hasn’t had a very positive first quarter. Even Audi is in the process of revamping their entire product lineup and as of now only have three models on sale in India – the A6, the A8L and the Q8 – none of which are volume generators. Audi hasn’t yet reported about their sales in the first quarter but according to sources, the company’s sales were in three digits.
