AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)03/08 Report--

On March 7th, Beijing Mercedes-Benz sales and Service Co., Ltd. announced important personnel appointments: the company's President and Chief Executive Officer Yang Ming (Jan Madeja) will return to his headquarters in Germany at the end of his nearly four-year term in the Chinese market, and Duan Jianjun, Chief operating Officer, will take over as President and CEO of Mercedes-Benz sales Company. The above appointments will take effect on May 1, 2023.

It is understood that Yang Ming (Jan Madeja) joined the Finance Department of Daimler Group (now Mercedes-Benz Group) in 1992 and held different positions within the group, including the head of overseas market and sales of Mercedes-Benz light vehicles, the head of cost control and chief financial officer of Daimler bus division, the CEO of Mercedes-Benz Poland and the CEO of Mercedes-Benz Russia. On September 1st, 2019, Ni Kai, then President and Chief Executive Officer of Beijing Mercedes-Benz sales and Services Co., Ltd., confirmed the end of his term in China to take over the position of President and CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA and North America, which was replaced by Jan Madeja.

Before joining Beijing Mercedes-Benz, Duan Jianjun was the sales vice president of brilliance BMW and was an authoritative expert in the field of automobile sales and marketing. On November 1, 2013, Duan Jianjun became Executive Vice President of sales and Marketing of Beijing Mercedes-Benz sales and Service Co., Ltd. On January 1, 2019, Duan Jianjun was promoted to the position of Chief operating Officer of sales and Marketing, with overall responsibility for sales and marketing of Mercedes-Benz in China.

It should be noted that Duan Jianjun is the first Chinese president and CEO in the history of a multinational car company. Volkswagen, Audi and BMW have never had a precedent. It is obvious that the personnel adjustment carried out by Mercedes-Benz in China is a major move to "prepare in advance" for future development. The appointment of Duan Jianjun not only broke the first Mercedes-Benz sales leader in the history of Mercedes-Benz business in China, but also set a precedent for a multinational company.

Of course, this change has more to do with Mercedes-Benz's performance in the Chinese market. In the domestic luxury market, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi have been in the lead. Subdivided into the BBA market, in 2013, when Duan Jianjun officially joined Beijing Mercedes-Benz, its annual sales were only 218000, while BMW and Audi were 412000 and 492000 respectively.

As one of the core members of the management, Duan Jianjun successively led a team with Ni Kai, Li Hongpeng, Yang Ming and Zhang Yan to catch up and become the first in the luxury car market by 2017. Mercedes-Benz sold 611000 vehicles in China in 2017, making it the world's largest single market, compared with Audi's 598000 and BMW's 594000 in 2017, according to the data. Since then, Mercedes-Benz and BMW have alternately become the top sellers in the luxury market, while Audi continues to rank third at the bottom.

On September 1st, 2019, Yang Ming (Jan Madeja) became president and CEO of Beijing Mercedes-Benz sales and Service Co., Ltd. 2020 is the first full sales year for Mercedes-Benz led by Jan Madeja in China. Despite the sudden COVID-19 epidemic, the year-on-year sales rose 11.7% to 774000 vehicles, 2 creating Mercedes-Benz sales performance in China. After that, even if the overall luxury car market was not as expected, Mercedes-Benz sales in China remained at about 750000 vehicles from 2021 to 2022.

Although it is firmly at the top of the luxury market, Mercedes-Benz's development in China has also ushered in a new issue in the face of the challenges of global supply chain and electrified transformation.

Mercedes-Benz brand has been born for a century, and it also bears the history of automobile development, but now in the era of electrification, the pace of Mercedes-Benz is somewhat difficult. Figures show that Mercedes-Benz delivered 117800 pure electric vehicles worldwide in 2022, accounting for only 5.8 per cent of total sales.

In 2018, the Mercedes-Benz EQ series began to launch on the market, launching EQA, EQB and EQC one after another, but these three models are actually only GLA, GLB and GLC fuel-to-electric models, failed to shoulder the banner of Mercedes-Benz pure electric vehicle sales, the terminal market performance has been poor, and has been criticized for its quality problems. Later, EQS, EQE, EQS SUV and other models came on the market, although these models are electric vehicles built on a new platform, but the price is very expensive.

According to public data, the global delivery volume of Mercedes-Benz's pure electric vehicles was 117800 in 2022, accounting for only 5.8% of the total sales, while the performance of Mercedes-Benz EQ series in the Chinese market is even worse. In fact, in the luxury new energy vehicle market, the sales of luxury brand new energy products, including Mercedes-Benz, are not optimistic in the Chinese market. Although the delivery volume of Mercedes-Benz new energy vehicles (including pure electric models and plug-in hybrid models) in China increased by 143% year on year in 2022, its delivery volume still lags far behind that of local new power brands such as Ulay and ideal. Perhaps that's why Mercedes-Benz chose a Chinese executive who knows more about the Chinese market and Chinese consumers as its CEO.

Although the performance on the new energy vehicle track is not satisfactory, Mercedes-Benz has shown great importance to China's high-end new energy vehicle market. In 2023, Mercedes-Benz will also launch six new pure electric models and plug-in hybrid models, including brand new EQS pure electric SUV, brand new EQE pure electric SUV, Mercedes-Benz S-Class (hybrid) cars, Maybach EQS pure electric SUV and plug-in hybrid models, forming 17 new energy product matrices that fully cover the new generation of luxury, core luxury and high-end luxury market segments. It remains to be seen whether the new leader will be able to lead Mercedes-Benz to revive its electric cars while stabilizing the fuel market.

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