If you picked four brand new Mercedes-Benz cars sold between July and September at random, one of them would have a charging port.
Statistically speaking, of course, according to the automaker's global sales figures it shared on Wednesday. The company's latest delivery report shows a huge leap in its electrification efforts despite a down quarter for vehicle sales overall.
Mercedes says it sold 407,200 passenger cars globally last quarter, an 8% year-over-year drop. It largely blamed "challenging market conditions" in China for the decline, noting that its sales outside the country grew by 6%. Mercedes is far from the only European car company struggling in the world's biggest car market.
And yet, Mercedes says it sold 68,400 battery-electric vehicles last quarter, up 61% year-over-year and 29% from the second quarter. While the Mercedes pie got smaller, electric cars accounted for a record share of sales: 16.8%. That's an increase of 7.2 percentage points from the same quarter last year, Mercedes said. Add in plug-in hybrids, and 25% of the company's sales had a plug.
A lot of the heavy lifting is happening in Europe, with the main growth driver being the electric GLC. In Europe, nearly one-in-three cars Mercedes sold were fully electric thanks to sales that rose 78% year-on-year. Its electric variants of the CLA, GLA, GLB, and GLC are all sold out in the EU for the remainder of 2026.
Mercedes also says that the sales of its electric vans have increased, albeit not nearly as much as its passenger cars.
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