According to Carscoops, Mercedes-Benz sedans have long been a familiar image to customers using taxi services in Europe. However, in recent years, this has been changing rapidly, as Mercedes' dominance in the taxi market here is gradually weakening.
In Germany - where this famous luxury car brand was born - the number of cars sold to transportation services (collectively known as taxis) by Mercedes decreased by 71%, from January 2024 to August 2024, reaching only 497 units compared to the sales of 1,730 units in the same period last year.
Of the total 497 Mercedes cars sold to the above taxi service, there are 127 E-Class cars (down 90%) and only one B-Class car, down 95% compared to the first 8 months of 2023. It is known that the minivan Vito Tourer line is the only name of the Mercedes brand that has maintained stable sales in the taxi/service car segment.
Previously, Mercedes' market share in the taxi segment in Germany had decreased from 52% in 2019 to 38% in 2023. Current data predicts that the market share of this luxury car brand in Germany will decrease to only 13% as more and more taxi companies ignore Mercedes and choose other brands.
Currently, Volkswagen is the leading name in the taxi market in Germany, mainly thanks to the success of minivans such as the Touran or Caddy. In fact, Japanese automaker Toyota is also selling more cars to taxi services than Mercedes, thanks to special versions of the Corolla or RAV4.
Mr. Ola Källenius - CEO of Mercedes-Benz Group announced in 2023 that the company will stop providing modified models exclusively for taxi services, and stop special incentives for taxi companies.
A Mercedes leader has also shared with Handelsblatt that the taxi service is not in line with the luxury standards of the company, while emphasizing that rivals such as BMW or Audi are not interested in this business segment.
According to Carscoops, the main factor for Mercedes' strategic change lies in the size of the taxi market in Germany. Only about 6,000-7,000 new taxis are registered annually in this country. This figure can be said to be quite modest when compared to the total sales of 2.8 million passenger cars per year in Germany.
Currently, Mercedes will continue to provide limousines based on the E-Class line. However, the process of converting vehicles to taxis will be handled by third parties.
However, taxis can be a way for car brands to increase sales by creating opportunities for customer experiences. But it seems that Mercedes no longer sees the potential in this strategy.
