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Although Audi has not yet released the latest sales, it seems that the ranking of first-tier luxury brands led by BBA in 2021 has been settled. Recently, BMW Group announced that a total of 669637 new cars (including BMW and MINI) were delivered in China in the first three quarters of 2021, an increase of 19.6% over the same period last year, of which 202573 new cars were delivered in China in the third quarter, down 12.2% from the same period last year.

As we all know, BBA is called BBA because Audi generally sells less than BMW and Mercedes-Benz, so who is the first "B"? In fact, there's always been a different story. Some netizens believe that Mercedes-Benz has been established for the longest time, so the first "B" means Mercedes-Benz. Some netizens also think that if it is calculated in terms of sales volume, it is not necessarily Mercedes-Benz.

Earlier, Mercedes-Benz had announced that it had delivered a total of 592203 new cars in China in the first three quarters, an increase of 4.0% over the same period last year, of which 150624 vehicles were delivered in China in the third quarter, down 32.6% from the same period last year.

According to previous data, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi sold 467064 vehicles, 441579 vehicles and 418188 vehicles respectively in China in the first half of this year, up 21.9%, 27.6% and 38.6% respectively from the same period last year. The sales gap between BMW and Mercedes-Benz was only about 25000 vehicles, and Mercedes-Benz grew faster than BMW in the first half of the year. No matter how you look at it, as long as Mercedes-Benz makes a push, it's not a problem to overtake BMW.

However, Mercedes-Benz's performance was not optimistic after entering the third quarter, with annual growth falling to 4 per cent from 27.6 per cent in the first half and the gap with BMW rising from 25000 to 77000. In addition, Audi is also ahead of Mercedes-Benz in the third quarter, if Mercedes-Benz sales are in the doldrums for a long time, it is not impossible to be overtaken by Audi.

A closer look at this reason is still related to the current market environment. As early as the beginning of this year, due to a shortage of chips, many big car companies announced that they would cut production or stop production, while Mercedes-Benz, as the representative brand of luxury cars around the world, was also unable to escape from it and intensified in the third quarter. In order to ensure profits, Mercedes-Benz supplies limited chips to higher-profit models, such as S-Class, G-Class, Maybach, and so on, while Mercedes-Benz's volume of models will be hit hard, such as E-Class, C-Class, GLC and other models, the shortage of chips makes it difficult to pick up cars, few discounts, and the decline in brand sales is not surprising. Of course, BMW and Audi are also affected by the chip, but not as serious as Mercedes-Benz. According to the data released by the Federation of passengers, in the ranking of high-end models, BMW's 3-Series, 5-Series, X3 and Audi's A6L, A4L, Q5L are ahead of Mercedes-Benz's C-Class, E-Class, GLC and other models.

It is uncertain whether Mercedes-Benz can catch up with or even overtake BMW in the last quarter, but if the current trend continues, Mercedes-Benz will not only be unable to catch up with Mercedes-Benz, it may even be overtaken by Audi. Of course, from the overall market point of view, luxury brands in the first three quarters in the market is still relatively hot, but in the third quarter luxury brands have begun to fail as expected, the fourth quarter is also not optimistic. With the intensification of market competition, the sales pressure among car companies in the fourth quarter is not small.

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