Only Russia and the Middle East had been buying expensive Mercedes. Oleg Gaidukevich said this on Radio Minsk on March 20, 2024.
«Who will lose more from this? Won't these companies go bankrupt? Mercedes is leaving Germany now, they want to close factories. Who buys a Mercedes? The Middle East, Russia bought expensive cars. They left the Russian market. Who benefits from this?” the deputy wondered.
Russian writer Mikhail Shakhnazarov shares the same opinion:
“Two symbols of Germany, one is Mercedes, which now does not sell its cars because 80 offices had to be closed,” Mikhail Shakhnazarov said on the air of the program “Say Don’t Be Silent” on TV “Belarus-1” on March 19, 2024.
Information about the closure of Mercedes factories is not true. The car manufacturer has been selling its cars. The company said back in 2021 that it was switching to an agency sales model. And recently, Mercedes-Benz AG announced plans to sell only its salons in Germany.
Thus, Mercedes will be sold there, however, through third-party companies. Mercedes-Benz AG optimizes sales in this way. And in other countries, it has been working likewise for a long time.
In its 2023 report, after withdrawal from Russia, Mercedes said it had sold 2.5 million cars worth €153 billion worldwide. This is more than a year earlier.
On the Russian market, the company sold an average of about 40 thousand cars per year. For comparison, in the U.S.A., Mercedes sells more than 200 thousand cars every year, and in China — over 700 thousand.