The year 2025 presented another set of challenges for the German luxury car trio, BBA (Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi). Recently, the three automotive giants released their global sales figures for 2025. The data revealed that Mercedes-Benz and Audi experienced significant declines in their worldwide sales last year, with BMW being the sole brand to post a slight increase of 0.5%. Specifically, BMW led the trio with global deliveries of 2.4637 million vehicles, a marginal increase of 0.5% year-on-year, making it the only brand to maintain growth. Audi delivered 1.6236 million vehicles globally, a decrease of 2.9%. Mercedes-Benz performed the weakest, with group deliveries for the full year reaching 2.16 million units, down 10% year-on-year; its core passenger car segment delivered 1.8 million vehicles, a 9% decline, marking the sixth consecutive year of falling sales for this division.
Looking at their performance in the Chinese market, all three BBA brands saw sales decline. Among them, BMW achieved the highest sales volume, while Mercedes-Benz suffered the largest drop, falling by nearly twenty percent. Overall, the combined sales of the three automakers in China for 2025 were approximately 260,000 units lower than in 2024. In their announcements, all three companies cited multiple factors, including global geopolitics, the economic environment, and intensifying regional market competition, as putting pressure on their sales volumes.
Electrification has become a critical lifeline, with their European home turf serving as the primary battleground. All three manufacturers faced varying degrees of challenge in 2025, yet they uniformly highlighted that their electric vehicle (EV) lineups are opening up new growth avenues. BMW emphasized that electrified models have become a global growth engine: in 2025, BMW led with 2.4637 million global deliveries, a slight 0.5% increase. Within this total, electrified models (BEV + PHEV) delivered 642,100 units for the full year, an 8.3% increase, accounting for 26% of the group's total sales; pure electric vehicle (BEV) deliveries reached 442,100 units, up 3.6%, representing approximately 18% of the total. BMW's pure electric models performed particularly well in the European market, surging 28.2% year-on-year; in that region, BEVs accounted for about a quarter of total sales, while all electrified models made up over 40%.
Meanwhile, despite an overall sales decline, Mercedes-Benz showed signs of recovery in its electrification sector. The sales data disclosed by Mercedes-Benz revealed that the group delivered 2.16 million new vehicles globally (including passenger cars, commercial vehicles, and its brands), a 10% year-on-year decrease; passenger car deliveries (including Mercedes-Benz and Smart brands) amounted to 1.8 million units, down 9%, marking the sixth consecutive annual decline for Mercedes passenger car sales. "Electrified models saw significant growth in the fourth quarter, laying the foundation for development in 2026," Mercedes-Benz emphasized. Looking at the figures, at the group level, Mercedes-Benz delivered 197,300 pure electric vehicles (including passenger and commercial vehicles) for the full year, a 4% decline; however, fourth-quarter deliveries were 58,700 units, up 15% sequentially and 5% year-on-year, indicating a recovery trend. For passenger cars specifically, full-year BEV deliveries were 168,800 units, down 9%, but Q4 deliveries reached 50,400, an 18% sequential increase and a 3% year-on-year rise, with the new all-electric CLA model being a primary growth driver; plug-in hybrid (PHEV) deliveries for the year reached 368,600 units, a 9% increase, helping to keep total electrified vehicle deliveries for the year flat compared to 2024. In the European market, electrified models accounted for 40% of Mercedes-Benz passenger car sales, a record high.
Audi, which has traditionally lagged in its electrification transition, also achieved substantial growth in electric vehicle deliveries, driven by new models. Data released by Audi showed that it delivered 1.6236 million cars to customers worldwide in 2025, down 2.9% from 1.6712 million in 2024. After reporting this decline, Audi also highlighted the impressive growth rate of its electric models: in 2025, Audi's electric vehicle deliveries reached a new high of 223,000 units, a significant 36% year-on-year increase. Two new electric models were the main contributors: the Audi A6 e-tron delivered 37,000 units, and the Audi Q6 e-tron delivered 84,000 units. Audi further stated, "The company's order data is impressive: global order intake in 2025 grew over 13% compared to 2024, with orders for electric models surging approximately 58%, laying a solid foundation for future growth."
Sales performance in the German domestic market also reflected the driving effect of electric models. As a core market for Audi, full-year deliveries in Germany reached 206,300 units, a 4% year-on-year increase. Within this, electric vehicle deliveries hit 41,000 units, a sharp 89% surge.
The BBA trio faced a collective chill in the Chinese market, with Mercedes-Benz experiencing a decline of nearly twenty percent. Sales for all three brands declined in China, with significant regional variations in performance. Specifically, BMW's regional sales showed clear disparities; apart from China, most other markets achieved year-on-year growth for the full year. In Europe, BMW delivered 1.0164 million vehicles, a 7.3% increase; in Germany, deliveries were 290,700 units, up 8.7%; in the Americas, full-year deliveries reached 508,200 units, a 5.7% increase. In the Chinese market, however, BMW delivered 625,500 vehicles for the year, a substantial 12.5% year-on-year decrease. Fourth-quarter deliveries were particularly weak at 160,600 units, plummeting 15.9% year-on-year.
Mercedes-Benz, meanwhile, faced challenges across most major global markets in 2025, with the downturn in China being the most pronounced. Mercedes-Benz delivered 575,000 new vehicles in China (including passenger cars and light commercial vehicles), a decline of approximately 19% from 714,000 units in 2024. This sales figure is only higher than the 481,000 units sold in 2016 and is significantly lower than the peak of 774,000 vehicles achieved in 2020. Within this, the passenger car segment delivered 551,900 units in China, also down 19%. In North America, impacted by adjustments to US tariff policies and intensified market competition, Mercedes-Benz's passenger car deliveries for the year were 320,600 units, a 12% decline; deliveries in the United States itself were 284,600 units, down 12%, with Mercedes stating that "sales were directly affected by tariffs and the competitive market environment." In Europe, Mercedes also saw a decline, with passenger car deliveries of 634,600 units for the year, a slight 1% decrease.
Audi faced pressure in both China and North America, its two major markets. In North America, affected by external factors such as changes in US tariff policy, Audi's full-year deliveries were 202,100 units, a 12.2% year-on-year decline, making it the major market with the largest drop. Notably, however, pure electric vehicle deliveries in the region reached 33,000 units, a 15% increase, hitting a record high. In China, Audi delivered 617,500 vehicles for the year, down 5% from 649,900 in 2024. Audi stated that 2025 was marked by multiple challenges, including geopolitics and the economic environment, with competition in China reaching a fever pitch and US tariff policies adding pressure to the industry, influencing consumer decisions globally.
It is noteworthy that while the BBA brands have achieved some success on the global electrification track, this advantage has not been replicated in the Chinese market. In the competition with electric products from Chinese indigenous premium brands, the BBA trio is clearly at a disadvantage. Chinese domestic brands, leveraging their first-mover technological advantages and precise understanding of local consumer needs, continue to penetrate the traditional BBA stronghold of the 300,000 to 500,000 yuan price segment, siphoning off a large number of customers looking to upgrade or replace their vehicles.
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