The story is now well known: because there are no semiconductors, the auto industry cannot produce and sell as many cars as it would like, which is why there was short-time working for the first time last December.
In the meantime, however, the problem is growing.
Minus 30.5 percent is the number with which the sales crisis of Mercedes is described in the third quarter, in Germany even 47 percent fewer cars were delivered.
In total, Mercedes sold just under 435,000 cars, while at the same time there was talk of robust demand and strong incoming orders.
Susanne Preuss
Business correspondent in Stuttgart.
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So that the sales crisis does not turn into an earnings crisis, the Stuttgart-based company has issued a clear strategy: the rare chips are distributed within the production network in such a way that especially the electric cars and the most profitable models of the classic combustion cars have priority - and that means: luxury is trump.
This strategy can be seen very clearly in the sales figures.
Since the beginning of the year, Mercedes has increased sales of plug-in hybrids and all-electric vehicles of the EQ brand by 143 percent to 184,000 units, with almost half of EQ sales attributable to the particularly difficult third quarter.
The flagship EQS, which even in the basic configuration costs more than 100,000 euros, is hardly included in the figures because it only came onto the market in August.
Waiting times of more than a year
Among the combustion models, the S-Class stands out, increasing sales by 45 percent to 62,300 units compared to the previous year. For the likewise very profitable models from AMG, Mercedes reports a sales increase of 31 percent (116,000 cars), the G-Class comes to almost 30 percent (32,000 cars). Overall, Mercedes sales since the beginning of the year have been 3 percent above the previous year's value, which can also be explained by a base effect: Last spring, production and sales in the automotive industry around the world were idle for weeks due to the corona pandemic, compared to sales in the first Significantly higher in the first half of 2021. This arithmetical effect no longer applies in the third quarter because after the lockdown in the previous year, car sales were characterized by catch-up effects.
Traditionally, Mercedes does not report details on the individual models. The strategy, however, means that compact cars tend to be treated as subordinate in production planning and result in correspondingly long waiting times, in some cases significantly more than a year, as Daimler CEO Ola Källenius recently confirmed in an interview with the FAZ: “Yes, there is demand enormous at Mercedes-Benz, and at the same time, unfortunately, there are currently severe restrictions. For some models, the waiting times are therefore longer than we would like, in some cases even over a year. ” simpler navigation system or sound system) at a correspondingly adjusted price.If you don't agree, you can cancel your order, according to Daimler.
“In production, we sometimes have to prioritize,” said Källenius, explaining the strategy in the FAZ interview: “We always have three things in mind: First and foremost, our customers.
But we are also paying attention to our profitability and to pushing ahead with our electric offensive.
We will do everything we can to shorten the waiting times when the situation stabilizes again. "
Problem will persist in 2022 as well
He hoped that the bottom in terms of semiconductor bottlenecks would be passed in the third quarter, he added.
Most recently, the shortage was compounded because some chip factories in Malaysia had been closed due to Corona - something like this is difficult to predict.
The structural issue that there are fundamentally too few semiconductors will continue in 2022, and the situation could then ease in 2023.
The Mercedes boss sees one way of reacting to the shortage of chips in working with the suppliers to convert certain products to a newer generation of chips that are not affected by bottlenecks.
"At the moment, the absolute high-tech chips are not missing at all, but above all those with a size of 30 to 200 nanometers - that is technology that was developed a few years ago," Källenius pointed out in an interview with the FAZ.