Mercedes-Benz isn’t just losing money on its devices. It is bleeding out on account of its devices. Fortune reports profits “plunged by almost a third” last year on account of “weak” sales of battery powered devices.
I tried to tell them.
It was late 2023 when Mercedes told me they would no longer be sending me cars to review – probably because I had been truthful about the devices they’d been sending me, which – like all devices – force you to sweat how much range you’ve got left because of how long it takes to recover a full charge. I had written reviews of some of Mercedes’ devices, including the 2023 EQE, which is a device that looks like a crossover SUV that is also sold as a device that looks like a sedan.
There was also the cold weather debacle I had driving the EQS, a device that looked like an S-Class sedan.
I think I was fair in terms of what I wrote about these devices but the problem Mercedes had, I suspect, is that I wasn’t willing to be unfair to my readers and give them the impression that a device with a “Mercedes” badge is somehow different from devices with other badges affixed to them.
A device being a device.
I tried to explain this self-evident proposition to Mercedes. Specifically, I wrote a long letter to the manager who had yanked my press car privileges on the altogether ridiculous premise that I lived “too far away” from the Mercedes press pool, the place where vehicles are kept in between deliveries to journalists like me to test drive for a week. The reason this struck me as ridiculous is that Mercedes had been sending me vehicles for 20 years and it was never “too far” before.
Why had it suddenly become so?
The only thing that had changed was that I was now test-driving Mercedes devices and writing – truthfully – about these devices rather than the vehicles Mercedes had been sending me for all those years prior. For one thing, it took all day to get a device here – because while a vehicle can get from there to here in four hours, a device has to stop twice along the way for a charge. Once to make it the rest of the other way and a second time to charge up again before it gets dropped off at my place – so that I can drive the device instead of waiting for it to charge.
Of course, the same hassles attend owning a device – and who wants to pay Mercedes money for that?
I also pointed out to my Mercedes contact that Mercedes ought to mean more than a badge – and a higher price. Put another way, that a device with a big three-pointed “Mercedes” star glued to its plastic front end is about the only thing different from a device with a Tesla badge glued to its plastic front end.
The implication being, why bother with the Mercedes device?
I think the article I wrote about the Mercedes device for less is the one that sealed the deal. It was a review of another device – the Hyundai Ioniq 6 – which looked so much like a Mercedes device (the EQE sedan) that it was hard to tell the difference between the two by sight.
You had to look at the price.
Hyundai’s device stickered for $37,500. Mercedes’ device stickered for $74,900. That is about $40k’s worth of difference. Which is a lot more to pay when you take into account there’s very little difference, one vs. the other, a device being a device.
Because how could there be?
An electric motor is not like an engine in that there is very little difference – other than size and power output – one electric motor vs. another. They are all silent. Their character is the same. Engines can be all kinds of different things. An inline four is not the same thing as a V8 and neither is an inline six or a flat four and none sounds like the other. Mercedes was, I suggested, committing seppuku by committing to “electrification.” That is, to abandoning engines in favor of electric motors and vehicles with unique-to-Mercedes character in favor of devices just like everyone else’s devices.
Why not just buy the lower-priced device?
Assuming you wanted a device. The problem – and not just for Mercedes – is that it’s become hard to sell devices. Even Tesla is having trouble selling its devices. The ones Mercedes and all the other luxury-brand manufacturers decided to copy and market as something different because they had a Mercedes three-pointed star or a BMW spinner glued to their plastic fascias.
This has cost Mercedes a fortune. It is why, according to Forbes, Mercedes “plans to slash production costs by a tenth by 2027 and also gave a bleak outlook for this year, saying it expected lower sales and leaner profit margins.” The German luxury car brand has also walked back its prior “commitment” to manufacturer nothing besides devices by 2030 or so.
“To ensure the company’s future competitiveness in an increasingly uncertain world, we are taking steps to make the company leaner, faster and stronger,” Mercedes CEO Ola Kallenius said.
I could have told them so. And did. Here’s what I wrote to my contact at Mercedes just about a year ago:
I’m writing again because I haven’t received a reply to my last email about the delivery distance issue.
You mentioned (in an earlier email) that this is “not something we wish to discuss.”
But why?
Why is it a problem to tell me (or any journalist) that it is necessary to live “x” distance (and no farther) from the press pool in order to get MB press vehicles to test drive for purposes of writing reviews? How are we supposed to be able to arrange things so as to not fall outside of the allowable distance?
I’ve been a car journalist for about 30 years now and this sort of issue has never come up before.
I’m wanting to understand the situation. But I can’t understand it if I don’t know specifics.
In the absence of them, it makes me think that there is another issue in play, as I have already said I suspect there is. If there is, I wish you would let me know what it is so that I can respond to it.
So that I can make sense of this.
My readership is substantial. It makes no sense (to me) that MB would not want a journalist with my reach covering MB vehicles. Unless MB is unhappy about the way I have covered them.
This has never been an issue in the past, however.
My suspicion is that there is unhappiness about my coverage of EVs, which I know MB has committed to making exclusively within just a few years from now. It may be that MB is not comfortable with my critiques of the pushing of EVs (as distinct from the EVs, themselves) via the various regulations that are making it all-but-impossible for the industry to make vehicles that aren’t battery-powered. MB may be wanting only favorable coverage of battery-powered cars – and wanting to work only with journalists friendly toward the push to “electrify” everything, irrespective of market demand.
I’ve tried to be fair in my coverage of the EV issue; to state the facts and the good as well as the bad. But I am not and refuse to be a cheerleader for the pushing of EVs on people and the pushing of the manufacturers to make nothing but. I also believe – and have written – that this push to “electrify” everything will tend to eliminate any meaningful distinctions between makes/models, especially those made by premium brands such as MB. One battery powered device being pretty much the same as any other battery powered device. 
Ray-o-Vac vs. Duracell.
It is for precisely that reason that I have written with gusto about MB vehicles that are not devices – because they are powered by uniquely MB engines such as the new straight six, as here.
I think what’s happening as regards the force-feeding of EVs is nothing less than destructive and tragic. And I suspect my writing-out-loud about it has led to the current situation rather than the distance situation.
I hope you’ll reply to this, but if not I understand.
They never did. Maybe now, they understand.
. . .
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Eric,
$74,900 is almost DOUBLE $37,500! $37,500*2=$75,000. When put like that, why would anyone pay double for what amounts to basically the same thing? I’m just sayin’…
I can’t believe the Germans bought into this EV crap, given that German automotive electrical systems are barely one step above the British.
Mercedes Jelenik was a tranny. “Her” real name was Joseph Lucas.
It’s a feature of the lesser make to emulate the fantastic style of the greater, like all the fords going around where you think to yourself “Aston Martin Grille”.
I went to a Mercedes seminar lecture in Kansas City at the Skills USA National competition, I believe 2012, and in a room of about 40 people we learned about the 13 or so wire windshield and multiple camera on the current crop of S-class.
Mercedes was defined by the S-class and was generally thought of at the time as they had been, about 10 years minimum ahead of the pack in regard to innovation and technology. But anyone who has watched top gear, and Jeremy Clarkson now specifically called out and said who wants to review washing machines, that when it comes to a Device (italicized), there seems to be nothing more to differentiate, when the recipe is the same, the safety systems are globally homogenized, and the only distinguishing feature would be the grille and the interior.
Now all cars are 5 star safety rated, and the recipe is don’t let the public get they’re grubby prawns on a Hydrogen Fuel Cell that can charge their house, but rather give them the same shitty Li-Ion battery pack and the range is the same as it was a hundred years ago.
It induces range anxiety. It’s why I have a direct from HK Unihertz Tank phone with a 22.5AH battery, so I only have to charge it once per week if that. Mercedes sedans can get away with weight, because they were always as safe as granite;. But it is not acceptable to the Mercedes customer to have range anxiety. Think order, think fix the actual problem and be years ahead of the curve, rather than produce meek technology everyone else has caught up to and produce devices with Li-ion battery packs with the same Delta-V equation problems. If Mercedes devices were hydrogen they’d be at the top of the class where they belong. I suspect that’s why they’re tanking is because everyone else has caught up to them, and there’s nothing left distinguishing them from the pack but the badge.
It could be both. Paying some contract company extra money (OT for the employee) for the time to get a BEV out to you plus a bad review likely doesn’t go well for this manager. He has no power over corporate decisions but he is getting trouble from above for paying extra only to see a negative review.
Who changed the picture colors?
Doh’
I remember being in high school auto tech. Those of us that were interested in cars and didn’t take the class to dick off gathered round to bask in the magnificence of a BMW 6L? V12… in the busted car lot out back where we would take cars in to do the most basic learning, when we didn’t have a teachers car to work on. It was glorious to behold, even if the rings were probably shot or it needed a head gasket. Just seeing that metal (no plastic covers) under the hood… a visual circle jerk, nowadays denied.
If you had a V12 you were somebody. Back when most people had V8’s and the v6’s were scum in FR applications
Eric,
Still waiting for my magnet… shall I remind you again?
Mercedes used to make great cars and engines….
Mercedes Benz M113 V8…one of the best European engines….
@ 2:16 in the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5VXAKQnGaI
There is no real reason to ever buy a Mercedes vehicle. Really over priced, and not really much better than anything else. Then there is ongoing service through the dealership, because there are constant issues needing repair and service. We have an ML350, which is nice, but the costs force it to almost become part of the family. Why can’t they produce vehicles that just run and run, with minimum of upkeep and repair. We shouldn’t even have to think about it. My next vehicle will probably be a Toyota, much better and designed to last for a long time.
Nor was there any real reason for your parents to have children, yet here you are.
Procreation is a natural instinct that enables the ‘human race.’
Buying a shitty overpriced Benz is not.
It reminds me of what Filson (they were a high end clothing manufacturer) did, Filson sold out to an investment group, they went from nearly everything made in the USA to nearly everything made outside the USA but the kept the made in USA prices, I am of the belief if its made in another country and sold at made in the USA prices, I will just go to Walmart and buy the cheap stuff.
Yup – largely the same with Craftsman tools.
Used to be made in USA and quality tools. Now they are made in China tools at made in USA prices.
At least they still honor the lifetime warranty. But if you have an old US made tool it gets replaced with China made junk.
Just the other day I broke a 3/8” China made Craftsman ratchet. I was really stressing it. Due to the space and nature of what I was doing, it had to be done with a 3/8” ratchet. Grabbed an old US made Craftsman 3/8” ratchet and applied the same force. US made tool worked without issue and lives to fight another day.
China made tool exchanged for another Chinesium Craftsman to be used only for light duty work. Ugh!
Might just as well buy anything new from Harbor Freight (HF). Chinese made but cuts out the middleman. Cheaper and better quality than Chinese Craftsman. There are now more places to exchange a HF tool than a Craftsman near me.
It’s just a race to the bottom now!
Hi BID,
Here’s a joke about Chinese “drop forged” tools” Some Chinese dude dropped the tools, near the forge.
LOL – Totally believable
I can’t remember the last time I bought a craftsman tool. I was quite a number of years ago when I wanted to finish off my gift cards before they went out of business. I got these locking adjustable wrenches. Believe it or not the silly things have been useful a couple three times.
Harbor freight has different levels and they are priced for what you get most of the time. The Icon line can be over priced but if you have a coupon they aren’t too bad. I think all I got from Icon is a slim torque wrench.
I’m also going to remind everyone that Mercedes (Daimler) destroyed Chrysler a couple decades ago.
Only fitting that they are now working on destroying themselves.
Burn bitchez, burn!
Laughs hysterically!!!
“Maybe now, they understand.” EP
Doubt it. The Germans have proven that they are unable to see reality. Decades of uncontrolled Muslim immigration. Decades of migration away from affordable, reliable energy to “green” energy have destroyed their industry. The destruction of Nord Stream pipeline and not a peep.
Censorship that now leads to arrests for “hate” speech if one dares to speak the truth.
Nope, the Germans and MB don’t understand. . . Yet. Maybe one day they will.
Back in the day Mercedes made a diesel engine that would run practically forever. With a turbo!
If they still made stuff like that, and it didn’t cost a small fortune to get it serviced, I’d consider buying one.
Since that kind of thing isn’t on offer any more, I’m not particularly interested.
“Mercedes ought to mean more than a badge – and a higher price.”
It does mean more … much more than double the cost to make repairs and more frequent repairs, too, when compared to many Asian manufactured models.
I look at auctions of used vehicles on BAT and CAB regularly.
I find it a good source to learn more about the cars being offered for sale.
Often the sellers publish their repair receipts and I am flabbergasted at the
insane costs to repair Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, and other European made
vehicles. Yes, the initial costs appear irrationally high, but the long term
cost of maintaining them are even worse.
My understanding, is that a lot of the people who drive one are on a lease, and/or they are in a position to use it as a tax writeoff so insane maintenance costs only help them.
OT: Volvo S60 with fake Bowers and Wilkins speakers
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/02/chinese-volvo-customers-report-fake-bw-speakers-in-their-cars/
Those who are willing to buy a car from a Chinese manufacturer like Volvo probably don’t care about this stuff – if they did, they wouldn’t be buying Volvo in the first place.
The automotive industry is definitely going through a rough patch right now, and not everyone will survive, but it brings me joy to watch reality come crashing through the veil of nonsense we’ve been living under. This will be a cautionary tale for future car industry leaders, or so I hope!
Consumer sentiment is sinking like a stone:
https://www.forexlive.com/news/umich-final-february-consumer-sentiment-647-versus-678-expected-20250221/
Autos and housing construction are leading indicators of the economy. They are pointing HARD DOWN.
Cautionary tale dead ahead!
OL, The great tragedy of the “rough patch” the auto makers, & us, the customers, are going thru is that we will all be the poorer for the experience…
Poorer, financially, since future vehicles/cars will cost us all more to buy, maintain, & operate…and also because there will be fewer makers who survive this (((government))) created debacle and the less choices we’ll have to pick from to purchase and use.
In 1924, the US & Canada alone had over 3,650 car makers!!!
How many vehicle makers are there in 2024???
And what will the future bring??? I’m not feeling too hopeful, just being pragmatic…
YMMV…
OppositeLock: “This will be a cautionary tale for future car industry leaders, or so I hope!”
At one time stockholders would rise up and demand that the MBAs, who promised that they could run the company better and produce better financials, be run out and replaced by engineers. The engineers built the companies, the accountants and business administration types destroyed them.
The problem precluding stockholder rebellion is that the huge financial groups, who are the major stockholders, are still run by those self-serving business school types who are in denial of their fallibiltiy.
Devices? DEVICES ??? SMATER, you can’t call them automobiles just because they are electric ?
Hi Rumple,
I like to be accurate. Electronic devices are just that – not vehicles.
I appreciate your tenacity; thanks for sticking to your guns.
And, technically, they’re not even “electronic”. Their power is simply an “electric” motor – an electric motor no one wants, except those who feel the need to “save the planet”, which is doing just fine without their help, thanks very much.
Absolutely, No Spam! Hell, someone got to do it…
Mercedes Benz just plain isn’t what it used to be.
In my dear dead youth, Mercedes Benz was first in quality and reliability, and had a classic style that clearly outshined the gaudy, gimmicky luxury cars of Detroit. From its superb diesels that ran for hundreds of thousands of miles without incident to its rock solid S-class luxury sedans and its sleek SL sports cars that gave no quarter to Ferraris while delivering a plush ride, Mercedes Benzes were unlike any other cars on the road. And a Mercedes Benz was a value proposition—sure, it cost
more, but it would run longer than 10 years and 100K miles at a time when cars would routinely bite the dust far sooner.
But today, Mercedes Benz makes cars that, aside from its rarefied flagship cars, are downright unexceptional. Plebeian Toyotas, Hondas, Mazdas, and Subarus cost significantly less and deliver better reliability, quality, and longevity, and offer the same features and benefits.
Seems like the only real reason to buy Mercedes Benz today is because you want the hood ornament.
And with the arrival of devices, even that isn’t a good reason.
Very well-said, Bryce –
Why pay close to $60k for a Mercedes with a 2.0 liter four when you can get the same thing for half as much just sans the plastic three-pointed star?
Or you could find an older one. I found a 99 SL5OO with 5OK miles for a little over ten grand. The whole car is mostly solid steel, with no rust, built like a mini tank. Its become my wifes Dailey driver. Wonderfull car, we’ve taken it on day trips a couple times to Kanab Utah. The car although not extremely quick has almost unlimited power once it gets moving. You’re right Bryce, very little reason anyone would want a new MB today.
I’d definitely go for that. Give me a 450SEL, 240D, 560SEC, or 500SL.
LOL, I owned a 240D. Worst car I ever owned. Slower than a bicycle. The interior outgassing for years (MB TEX) was horrible, much like the other models.
“Germany just plain isn’t what ir used to be.” fify.
I had a 240D and a 300SD. Most dependable cars I’ve ever owned. Got em used on the cheap and sold them for close to what I paid for them years later. But then my daughter bought a later ML320 that constantly had something going wrong. Expensive as well. Biggest mistake ever.
Bryce,
If I may, let me paraphrase some of your great post….
‘Germany just plain isn’t what it used to be.
In my dear dead youth(I’m82), Germany was first in quality and reliability’…….
My ‘dear dead’ German Grandpas could do amazing things. One was a pattern maker/master carpenter/builder a hundred years ago. The other was a blacksmith and mechanic(when automobiles were in their infancy). They could design, build fix and repair literally anything.
The words ‘good’ or ‘great’ were not in their vocabulary…..everything had to be perfect.
“An electric motor is not like an engine in that there is very little difference – other than size and power output – one electric motor vs. another.”
Maybe the MB marketing dweebs can invent terms like “luxury armatures” or “executive commutators” to distinguish their otherwise bland electric motor.
Off topic –Eric, how much work would it take to create archives by topic (covidcon, evs, clovers, etc)? There’s been a few times I wanted to re-read an article and couldn’t remember the date/title. Might could turn it into a mashup style book like Scott Ritter and Anna K did based on Scott’s interviews about the stupidity of the uke war.
Hi Mike,
Yup!
On the rest: I’d like to have my computer guy build a custom site with features such as you describe but it’s beyond my means right now, courtesy of the doubling of insurance, property taxes and groceries. But maybe my long-gone uncle – who used to be an executive at UBS – will send me a bar of Nazi gold from the grave and that’ll take care of it!
If you had to spitball a total cost, what would it be?
‘I tried to tell them.’ — eric
But they wouldn’t listen.
Tesla pulled a one-off event by beating everyone else to the market, then grabbing green subsidies to catapult itself into the lead with stolen money.
Copycat auto CEOS thought they could become billionaires too by churning out battery-powered devices — WRONG-O! Most drivers don’t want them, and never will.
BUT STILL they are going to draw the wrong lesson. Tesla’s biggest competitor in China is Xiaomi, a freaking cell-phone marker. So idiot auto CEOs will seek tie-ups with Apple and Samsung and Google to make devices with fancier Clownscreen graphics, and better ambient lighting, and a virtual girlfriend who buffs up your ego while you drive (‘squeeze me with those big hands, you handsome hunk‘).
Human foibles, in other words, are going to take them all down. It may be the first real-world example of what competition-hating leftists call a ‘race to the bottom.’
marker –> maker
At least Mercedes can throw it back on the people who voted for Energiewende. Maybe the German parliament will give them a nice bailout package.
Unfortunately I get the impression that the German rulers are so beaten down they’ll just accept that the oldest car manufacturer on Earth, a source of national pride for generations, should be destroyed. The German people, who still remember such things, will protest and fight and complain bitterly, but then be jailed for having a disagreeable opinion.
Meanwhile, the French are laughing at the superior intellect.
‘Meanwhile, the French are laughing at their superior intellect.’ — ReadyKilowatt
The prickly French at least have the Belgians kick around. Used to hear jokes like this when I lived in the Aquitaine:
“Why don’t the Belgians eat pretzels?
“Because they can’t untangle the knots.”
These had better not turn into jokes about the krauts, as Germany glug-glug-glugs down the drain. THAT MEANS WAR:
“Germany and France go to war. Who loses? Belgium.”
France won’t go to war with Germany. They are some of their best customers when it comes to selling electricity.
The French people, who don’t seem to be putting up with much of the green agenda, OTOH, will sit back and watch as the Deutschlanders castrate themselves because their leaders told them to.
You know when a population has been fully emasculated when the vast majority of its males are f-ing sitzpinklers. Can’t have that toxic masculinity ya know.
“Some German bathrooms have amusing signs reminding men to sit. There’s even a device called a WC-Geist – toilet ghost – that lives under the seat and, when the seat is lifted, orders you to sit down. You can get a WC-Geist with the voice of Angela Merkel. Germany is a brilliant country.”
Here’s the full propaganda piece trying to convince us all to be like Germans -Why even Lionel Messi sits:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/feb/20/the-splashback-scandal-should-all-men-sit-down-to-urinate
-Hat tip to Jim H for bringing this phenomenon to my attention a while back. It explains so much about the krauts.
Upton Sinclair stated “you can’t fix stupid” but, in a little more eloquent manner, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it,”
Good luck Eric on your quest but as the old saying goes “You can’t fix stupid” and to misquote Yoda: “The Stupid is strong in this one”. Perhaps they need the shareholders to DOGE them and the survivors will might begin to realize how badly they’ve damaged the company and their shareholders. But I’m not holding my breath……