Mercedes-Benz overtakes BMW in the luxury market

BMW lost its crown as the world's biggest luxury-car brand, to Mercedes-Benz, for the first time in more than a decade amid a clutter of aging models.

BMW sold 80,000 fewer cars than the Daimler AG brand, which drew younger buyers with sporty redesigns and a bigger array of increasingly popular SUVs. A rebound for BMW will be hampered by challenges that range from slowing auto demand in Europe to the threat of trade barriers in the UK and North America.

BMW's global deliveries rose 5.2 per cent in 2016 to two million cars, growing at less than half the 11.3 per cent rate which lifted deliveries at Mercedes to 2.08 million. Third-placed peer Audi sold 1.87 million cars in 2016, 3.8 per cent more than a year earlier. Mercedes had lagged behind the BMW since 2005 and temporarily dropped below Audi to third place before a revamped SUV line-up drove a strong comeback in recent years.

Sales will expand in the low single digits in 2017, BMW's sales chief Ian Robertson said at the Detroit auto show on Monday. Headwinds this year include weaker demand in the UK amid preparations for Brexit, and slowing growth in China, he said.

While BMW chief executive Harald Krueger says he's more focused on profitability than on sales, he needs funds to cover rising investments in electric cars and self-driving features.

All three German luxury car makers face that challenge – along with increased competition from expansions by smaller rivals such Jaguar, Volvo, and from new entrants such as Tesla Motors – but BMW is particularly vulnerable because it doesn't have the deep pockets of a large parent to fall back on.

Climbing research and development spending has pushed BMW profitability lower, with the ongoing revamp of its lineup also weighing on its earnings.

Enormous costs

Global automakers are confronted with enormous costs to develop battery-powered vehicles in order to meet ever-stricter emissions regulations even though consumers aren’t buying enough electric cars to make the investment worthwhile. BMW, an early adopter of green technology, has been slow to add new electric offerings after the tepid sales of its i3 city car.

Political changes in key markets are likely to add to BMW's hurdles. The company would be hit hard by a border tax for carmakers that's been suggested by Donald Trump and by any new tariffs resulting the UK's exit from the European Union, because of its large investments in Mexico and the UK.

The carmaker is spending $1 billion to build a factory in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, where 1,500 workers will produce the 3-Series saloons starting in 2019. Its only US factory in Spartanburg, South Carolina, is its largest worldwide and ships SUVs across the globe.

The company has been making most of its Mini subcompacts in the UK since acquiring the brand 20 years ago, and the cars and engines it makes yield exports of about £2.4 billion (€2.75 billion) per year.

Audi is also facing an uncertain relationship with the incoming US administration: last year the brand opened a new plant in Mexico that assembles the Q5 SUV for export at a cost of about €1 billion. The company, which unlike BMW doesn’t have a US plant to pick up a potential reduction in imports, is sticking to its plan to gradually ramp up production in Mexico to 150,000 cars per year, according to a company spokesman.

– Bloomberg