As Mercedes-Benz continues its upmarket move, some of the most affordable cars may have to go, company CEO Ola Källenius admitted at a press conference.
He said that the company intended to “look up, rather than down” and stop trying to compete with mass-market automakers. He opined that “chasing sale volumes” was not the right strategy for Mercedes to adopt, and pointed out that the ongoing chip shortage forced the company to revise its plans and ultimately come up with better, more profitable marketing strategies.
This may mean that Mercedes may start pulling the cheapest models, like the A-Class, from production and instead focusing on making more premium and luxury vehicles bearing high profit margins. The final decision will be announced at a primary investors’ meeting coming up soon.
Three months ago, media learned that select countries found themselves lacking affordable Mercedes cars. Specifically, dealerships in the USA will soon run out of their A-Class sedan stock with no resupply coming up anytime soon, while customers in Canada will also lose the A-Class hatchback. With the A-Class largely gone from the North American market, this leaves the GLA-Class at the bottom of the affordable lineup.