Mercedes Hopes EVs Will Bring Sales Back To Pre-Pandemic Levels

Mercedes-Benz wants to sell some 350,000 vehicles in the United States in 2023, and it wants at least 45,000 of those vehicles to be full EVs. And it expects the proportion to grow so that by the end of the decade around half of the vehicles sold in the US will be electric.

The information was made public during the company’s national dealer meeting held earlier this month. Mercedes’ US sales figure for 2019 was 357,729 vehicles (commercial vehicles included) and that’s roughly the target they want to achieve and possibly surpass in 2023. For reference, its sales dropped to 324,70 in 2020 and 329,665 in 2021 due to the pandemic that was affecting all walks of life at that point.

Interestingly, even though sales were down, because the entire market was down, Mercedes’ US market share actually grew from 2.07 percent in 2019 to 2.20 percent in 2021.

Gallery: 2021 Mercedes-Benz EQA 250 AMG Pack

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In its quest to catch up to and ultimately surpass Tesla, the automaker skipped selling its smallest electric offering, the EQA (pictured above), in the US, but it is bringing the slightly larger EQB (pictured below) over as its base EV model. It can be had as a seven-seater and it looks quite SUV-like (whereas the EQA looks more like a tall hatchback) but it is ultimately based on the GLB, so it will be interesting to see how it will be perceived among the many bespoke EVs it will face.

The EQA is the second important electric Mercedes that’s not coming to the US, after the first EQC. Mercedes also chose not to sell the EQV, the electric version of the V-Class known as the Metris in the US, even though it would have been quite a unique proposal with no real direct rivals.

Gallery: 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQB

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The big arrivals for Mercedes’ US lineup are the EQE and EQS, though, both of which will be available as sedans and SUVs. Well, the EQS sedan is actually a liftback; only the EQE is a true sedan, even though they have pretty much identical proportions. The launch of the EQE SUV, planned for sometime next year, will probably be the most significant moment for the EQ range in the US, since that is exactly the kind of EV that luxury car buyers are looking for these days.

Mercedes will also target the uber-luxury segment with its Maybach-badged versions of the EQS sedan and SUV. We’ve already seen what the latter will look like and it’s certainly an attention grabber, so it will be a natural choice for those affluent EV buyers who will want to stand out in the EV crowd with their big and highly customized electric SUV. As with its ICE Maybach offerings, customization will be a major part of what draws buyers to this high end brand.

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