GermanyMercedes-Benz Cars sold 407,200 passenger cars worldwide in the third quarter of 2026, 8% fewer than a year earlier. Mercedes puts the fall mainly on China; outside China, sales were 1% higher than in the same quarter of 2025.
China down, Europe and North America up
Sales of Mercedes-Benz Cars in China fell 31%, which Mercedes attributes to a difficult car market and intense competition. The GLC and E-Class made up almost two thirds of its China sales and held up better than the market. Asia as a whole sold 132,300 cars, 25% fewer. For the model behind the China slump, see our earlier report on the CLA L.
Europe grew 5% to 168,700 cars, led by Germany (+13%) and the UK (+7%). North America rose 4% to 83,200.
Electric record
Battery-electric sales reached 68,400, a company record, up 61% on the third quarter of 2025 and 29% on the second quarter. Electric cars were 16.8% of sales, 7.2 percentage points more than a year earlier. In Europe, battery-electric sales rose 78% year on year, and almost one in three Mercedes cars sold there was fully electric. The electric GLC led, with sales more than tripling on the second quarter; electric CLA sales grew 24% on the second quarter as the model reached more markets, including the US and Japan.
Mercedes says the battery-electric GLC, CLA, GLB and GLA are sold out in Europe for the rest of 2026, with order books reaching well into 2027, and that its Bremen, Rastatt and Kecskemét plants are running three shifts. That is Mercedes’s own statement of demand.
By segment
Top-End sales (AMG and Maybach models, the G-Class, S-Class, GLS, EQS and EQS SUV) were 53,900, or 13.2% of the total, which Mercedes says was held back by China and model changeovers. Core sales were 234,200 (-6%) and Entry sales 119,200 (-4%).
