FIVE months into its agency sales model, Mercedes new car registrations are down 11.6% and more than 4,500 units on the same time last year. The drop is set against a market that’s up 16.8% overall.
Mercedes is also the biggest faller in terms of new car registrations in terms of outright numbers so far this year, although other brands have seen larger percentage drops.
Catch up on the latest leasing broker news in the 23 May 2023 Broker News newsletter
Volvo has confirmed that it will be joining Mercedes in switching to full agency model from June onwards – what’s the impact on brokers?
Catch up on the latest leasing broker news in the 09 May 2023 Broker News newsletter
MERCEDES-BENZ, the first major brand to switch from franchised retailing to the agency model, recorded another significant drop in new car registrations in April.
The OEM was down 1,425 units on the same month last year. The fall comes against an overall rise for the month of 11.5% and a company car market rise of around a third.
Mercedes’ monthly unit drop was by far the largest fall.
DESPITE Tesla’s Model Y being the best-selling new car in March, the brand’s overall registrations for both the month and the first quarter of the year were down more than 2,000 units. The significant drop has contributed to a stalling of the total EV market share.
For March, Tesla was down 2,428 cars and for the quarter it was down 2,192 units.
The figures would suggest that, despite Tesla’s recent price cuts…
BROKERS can exist under an agency retailing model, but they will need to form relationships directly with manufacturers rather than being supplied by retailers.
This was one of the messages from a recent conference looking at all aspects of agency.
Speaking at the Auto Retail Network Agency Conference, held in the same month Mercedes launched its new agreement, experts agreed that manufacturers would be able to supply brokers with cars, particularly as supply increases, but they will be disinclined to do so at least in the early stages of an agency agreement rollout.
Apart from Mercedes continuing to lose sales under agency, the latest figures add to the argument the new car market is returning to a more normal supply-demand situation with fleet registrations growing significantly faster than more profitable private registrations…