Mercedes-Benz offered 2.05 million passenger autos globally in 2021, dropping its crown because the world’s top-selling luxurious model to BMW.

It is the primary time in 5 years that the BMW model has outsold Mercedes.

Gross sales of Mercedes model passenger vehicles fell 5 p.c to 2.05 items final yr, father or mother Daimler mentioned Friday. Quantity slumped by 25 p.c within the fourth quarter because the semiconductor scarcity continued to hit provide.

BMW model offered a file 2.2 million autos in 2021, the automaker mentioned earlier this week. The corporate will launch official figures later this month.

Mercedes was boosted by demand for its electrified fashions.

Gross sales of plug-in hybrids and full-electric autos at Mercedes grew by 69 p.c to succeed in a brand new excessive at 227,458 items, of which 48,936 had been Mercedes-Benz EQ full-electric vehicles.

Mercedes mentioned it had obtained 16,370 orders for its EQS full-electric luxurious sedan, whose retail gross sales began in December.

The gross sales numbers for Mercedes don’t embrace the Sensible model or gentle business vans. BMW’s complete is only for the namesake model and excludes the group’s Mini and Rolls-Royce marques.

‘Unstable’ 2022

Mercedes delivered a warning for 2022, saying that “the semiconductor provide state of affairs stays unstable and the scarcity is anticipated to affect the upcoming quarters by way of manufacturing and gross sales.”

Automakers have been prioritizing manufacturing of higher-margin autos in the course of the chip scarcity, and Mercedes mentioned deliveries had been up sharply for the S-Class (40 p.c) and high-end autos from Maybach (51 p.c) and Mercedes-AMG (17 p.c). 

By area, Mercedes gross sales fell 11 p.c in Europe, down 25 p.c in Germany; 1.6 p.c in Asia, with a 2 p.c drop in China; however grew by 0.3 p.c in North America, together with a 0.4 p.c enhance within the U.S.

Mercedes mentioned it anticipated to succeed in its 2021 EU emissions discount goal and keep away from fines “based mostly on inside calculations.”

It mentioned an extra lower in its fleet emissions was anticipated in 2022 as electrified automobile gross sales enhance. 

Industrial van gross sales had been up 2.6 p.c to 334,210 items, Mercedes mentioned, together with greater than 9,000 full-electric vans.

Daimler has been cut up into two firms, Daimler Vehicles for business autos and Mercedes-Benz Group, for passenger vehicles. The identify change was ratified in October and takes impact Feb. 1.

Reuters contributed to this report