Annoyed with cheaters, Mercedes-Benz Thailand releases verified Q1 sales figures

Mercedes-Benz Thailand has overtaken BMW to become Thailand’s No.1-selling luxury automotive brand, with 3,178 units registered in the first quarter of 2021, as confirmed by registration figures from Thailand’s Department of Land Transport.

The figure does not include orders collected from March’s 2021 Bangkok Motor Show.

For the last 19 years, BMW has held the crown for Thailand's No.1-selling luxury car brand. 

The fact that Mercedes-Benz's sales figures came from Thailand’s Department of Land Transport (their equivalent to JPJ) is important because as part of its internal compliance measures, all Mercedes-Benz’s sales offices are no longer allowed to report their local sales figures to the media unless it is verified by the local vehicle registration authority.

Mercedes-Benz have previously implied that some of its rivals have been taking advantage of the company’s transparency to manipulate their reported sales figures.

Starting this year, all Mercedes-Benz sales offices can only share vehicle registration figures provided by the country’s vehicle registration authority, and not their internally reported figures, which by the industry’s practice, often includes vehicles delivered to dealers rather than actual cars delivered to customers.

Likewise, Mercedes-Benz Malaysia no longer reports its sales figures, unless it is provided by JPJ. However, JPJ’s vehicle registration database is not setup to allow for easy extraction of data by make and model, and Mercedes-Benz Malaysia is leaving the decision for the next step forward with JPJ and the Malaysia Automotive Association (MAA).

We have covered this topic in greater detail here.

The way the Stuttgart-based carmaker sees it, whether the media reports Mercedes-Benz or any other brand as the No.1 brand or not is of little value to them. What matters is whether the company is selling enough cars to be profitable.

Roland Folger, the former CEO of Mercedes-Benz Malaysia, who is now the CEO of Mercedes-Benz Thailand adds that Thailand customers can expect at least 15 more new launches, including several plug-in hybrid variants this year.

Separately, Mercedes-Benz Thailand has launched a new ‘Charge to Change’ campaign, to encourage plug-in hybrid (PHEV) owners to charge their vehicles more often.

Acknowledging that many PHEV don’t charge their vehicles, the company is providing 150 Wallbox chargers for free to hotels and leading shopping malls.

To date, Mercedes-Benz Thailand has sold over 20,000 units of PHEV models.

Mercedes-Benz Thailand currently sells 6 PHEV models (9 variants) – C300e, E300e, S560e, GLC 300e, GLC 300e Coupe, GLE 350 de.

The company also operates a RM 497 million hybrid battery manufacturing plant in the outskirts of Bangkok.

Thailand is the third country to produce hybrid batteries for Mercedes-Benz, after Germany (Kamenz) and China (Beijing).