1 In 4 New Mercedes Cars Sold Last Quarter Had A Plug

Mercedes-Benz's EV sales skyrocketed in the third quarter, increasing 61% year-over-year.

Photo by: Mercedes-Benz

By: Rob Stumpf

Oct 7, at 4:32pm ET

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Mercedes-Benz's overall sales are down, but that's only a snapshot of the story.
Its EV sales are up—way up—with 16.8% of passenger cars sold last quarter being fully electric.
And if that wasn't enough, Mercedes says that one in four cars sold had a charging port.

If you picked four brand new Mercedes-Benz cars sold between July and September at random, one of them would have a charging port.

Statistically speaking, of course, according to the automaker's global sales figures it shared on Wednesday. The company's latest delivery report shows a huge leap in its electrification efforts despite a down quarter for vehicle sales overall.

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

Mercedes says it sold 407,200 passenger cars globally last quarter, an 8% year-over-year drop. It largely blamed "challenging market conditions" in China for the decline, noting that its sales outside the country grew by 6%. Mercedes is far from the only European car company struggling in the world's biggest car market.

And yet, Mercedes says it sold 68,400 battery-electric vehicles last quarter, up 61% year-over-year and 29% from the second quarter. While the Mercedes pie got smaller, electric cars accounted for a record share of sales: 16.8%. That's an increase of 7.2 percentage points from the same quarter last year, Mercedes said. Add in plug-in hybrids, and 25% of the company's sales had a plug.

A lot of the heavy lifting is happening in Europe, with the main growth driver being the electric GLC. In Europe, nearly one-in-three cars Mercedes sold were fully electric thanks to sales that rose 78% year-on-year. Its electric variants of the CLA, GLA, GLB, and GLC are all sold out in the EU for the remainder of 2026.

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Mercedes also says that the sales of its electric vans have increased, albeit not nearly as much as its passenger cars. About 11% of all vehicles sold across its van arm were electric, with Europe seeing as high as 15% share.

Will this electric wave hit the U.S.? Sales probably won't boom as much as they are in Europe. But the company does have a product offensive coming in the form of a whole bunch of new EVs, like the C-Class, GLC, and GLB.