EVs and SUVs look to be the way forward.
Right now, just about anyone who makes cars is telling everyone how many of those cars they sold in the first quarter of the year. Mercedes-Benz is the latest to reveal its US-market Q1 sales reports and the results appear to be a continuation of the trend we're seeing across the automotive industry.
EVs and SUVs (and EV SUVs) are selling incredibly well right now. If your brand makes a car like the Mercedes-Benz EQS, Hyundai Ioniq, or anything in between, odds are it's probably doing pretty well right now. On the flip side, performance cars are selling worse than ever, especially at Mercedes-AMG.
The German luxury automaker's report shows that sales for all AMG models are down a staggering 40.2% compared to Q1 last year. To be fair to Mercedes, pretty much everyone has dealt with their share of supply chain woes in one way or another, and it has certainly contributed to the AMG brand's drop in sales. In total, 6,985 AMG vehicles have been sold in Q1 this year. Compare that to the Mercedes-GLC's sales figures, and the larger picture becomes clear.
Mercedes-Benz sold 16,910 units of the GLC crossover in Q1, almost exactly ten thousand units more than the total number of AMG models sold in the same timeframe. The GLC-Class SUV is proving to be very popular, but even more popular SUV models showed a decline in sales. Again, we attribute much of this to the current state of the market. The Mercedes-Benz GLE, despite selling 15,990 units, was down 4.1% while the GLS SUV was down 17.7%.
However, there are some silver linings for the German brand. Despite poor AMG sales, the Mercedes-AMG GT accounted for almost a sixth of the brand's total AMG lineup sales, with 942 units sold. But the Mercedes S-Class is the real (three-pointed) star. Sales rose by a huge 361.8%, or 3,774 more cars than last year, following the release of the newest iteration of the famed luxury sedan.
Mercedes-Benz USA CEO Dimitris Psillakis said that the brand's EV push is "off to a very positive start with strong results and high demand for the EQS." The brand hopes to continue to satiate EV demand with the release of the EQS AMG sedan and the EQS SUV, the latter of which will be revealed later this month.
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