AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)09/13 Report--

Production at two Mercedes-Benz factories in Beijing stopped one after another within a week, Auto Pixel reported. Beijing Mercedes-Benz's NGCC plant in Daxing will stop production for more than 40 days, while the Shunyi plant will also stop production in the near future, the report said.

It is understood that Beijing Mercedes-Benz in the domestic layout of two major vehicle manufacturing plants-Daxing factory and Shunyi factory, of which Daxing factory is also known as the front drive factory, the main production includes GLA class, A class, GLB class, E class long wheelbase version, C class long wheelbase version, while Shunyi factory can achieve mixed-line production of Mercedes-Benz FMA front platform, MRA rear drive platform, EVA2 electric platform electric vehicles, put into production of GLB class, EQA, EQB, EQC, EQE and other models.

As for the reason for the shutdown, the Daxing plant is mainly due to product transformation, which will undertake the production of the next generation CLA and need to complete the transformation from the existing MFA platform to the MMA platform. On the eve of the 2023 Munich auto show, Mercedes-Benz officially unveiled its new CLA-class concept car, which will be launched in 2024 and will be the first model built by the MMA architecture.

The reason for the shutdown of Shunyi factory is more due to the failure of product transformation and the poor sales of EQ series electric vehicles such as EQA, EQB, EQC and so on. As Mercedes-Benz's first pure streetcar, EQC sales are very poor. Take the Chinese market as an example, it sold a total of 167vehicles in the first eight months, which is the worst domestic model of Mercedes-Benz, while the sales of EQA and EQB are also very general, with sales of 2583 and 4354. EQA, EQB and EQC are essentially "oil-to-electricity" models, which have not been recognized by Chinese consumers even in the case of substantial discounts in the end market.

In the era of fuel cars, luxury is the best moat of Mercedes-Benz, and consumers are also willing to pay for the premium, while in the era of electric cars, consumers are very sensitive to the brand. Mercedes-Benz's electric cars lack highlights in terms of intelligence and mileage, and are regarded as "hybrid cars" in the electric car industry.

Another reason for the slow electrification of Mercedes-Benz is the lack of competitive entry-level luxury models. In China, the best-selling models of Mercedes-Benz are the E-Class, C-Class and GLC, among which the E-Class already has an electric car of the same name, that is, the EQE, which is a real electric car, but the price is very high, starting from 528000 yuan, while the electric car named EQC could have become a strong competitor to Model 3, but it is a model based on GLC. According to Kang Linsong's plan, the positioning C-class walking electric model will be on the market by the end of 2024 or 2025.

During the 2023 Shanghai Auto Show, Duan Jianjun said, "Electric transformation is the greatest certainty in the current automobile industry change, and Mercedes-Benz's determination, core and confidence to actively embrace this change remain unchanged." It is not difficult to see that Mercedes-Benz attaches great importance to the field of electric vehicles, but from the fate of EQC being snubbed by the market, Mercedes-Benz's brand influence has been greatly reduced in the race track of intelligent electric vehicles.

Mercedes-Benz will have to rely on fuel cars for a long time to come. At the 2023 Shanghai Auto Show, the mid-term modified GLC long-wheelbase version went on sale at a price of 42.78-531300 yuan. The appearance and interior of the new car adopt the latest design language of the Mercedes-Benz family, and provide five-seat and seven-seat space layout. In addition, the new E-Class long-axis version has also been declared in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and is expected to be put into mass production in November, which may be the last time for Mercedes-Benz to upgrade the E-Class. According to the data of the Federation of passengers, the cumulative sales of Class E in the first 8 months were 105500 vehicles, while the GLC was 75700 vehicles.

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