Mercedes-Benz sells 2.05 million passenger cars in 2022

BERLIN (Reuters) -Mercedes-Benz delivered 2.05 million passenger cars in 2022, the company said on Tuesday, down 1% on the previous year as the carmaker felt the impact of COVID-19 measures and bottlenecks.

Still, fourth-quarter sales rose 17% as logistics and supply chain bottlenecks eased, and battery-electric sales grew 124% over the course of the year to 117,800 units.

Demand for the carmaker’s high-end Maybach vehicles was particularly strong, with 2022 sales up 37% year-on-year driven by higher sales in China, Japan, Korea and the Middle East.

The only key region to see a year-on-year fall in sales was China, with a 1% drop, according to Tuesday’s data.

Europe and North America saw 1% and 3% growth, respectively, while the rest of the world saw a 27% fall in sales largely due to the carmaker suspending operations in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.

Entry-level vehicles, the lowest price segment, saw a 10% sales drop primarily due to supply chain bottlenecks, the carmaker said.

Rival BMW Group delivered just under 2.4 million vehicles in 2022, down 4.8% from the year before, with brand sales down 5.1% as bottlenecks caused by lockdowns in China as well as the war in Ukraine dampened deliveries.

(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, Writing by Miranda MurrayEditing by Madeline Chambers)