Mercedes-Benz Launches Electrified Performance Flagships as China Slide and Labor Discord Weigh on Shares

Mercedes shares hover near year lows as China deliveries drop 30%, offsetting strong EV growth and new AMG, S-Class launches. Internal strife and bond restructuring add to headwinds.

The Mercedes-Benz share price remains trapped near its lowest level in a year, closing at €43.98 and hovering just 3.1% above the 52-week trough of €42.64 touched in late June. The stock has shed 28.65% since January and sits roughly 29% below the December 2025 peak of €62.30, a decline that reflects a deepening schism between the company’s product ambitions and the harsh realities of its biggest market.

That product push was on full display this week. Mercedes-AMG unveiled the electric CLA 45 4MATIC+, a three-motor tour de force delivering 500 kW (680 hp) and a 0-100 km/h sprint of 2.71 seconds. Its 94-kWh battery, built on 800-volt architecture, enables a WLTP range exceeding 670 kilometers in saloon form, with the Shooting Brake variant managing over 640 km. The model, assembled in three-shift operations at the Rastatt plant, can charge at up to 330 kW. On the same day, the company presented a comprehensively refreshed S?Class, now running the MB.OS operating system with an MBUX Superscreen and integrations of ChatGPT-4o and Google Gemini. Under the bonnet sits a new M177 Evo V8 producing 395 kW, alongside a plug-in hybrid version offering around 100 kilometers of electric range. Mercedes-Benz Vans also entered the fray, launching the fully electric VLE on the VAN.EA platform in Romania, though the local COO flagged charging infrastructure and cost as persistent barriers.

Yet the showroom gloss has done little to mask the underlying sales pressure. In the second quarter, Mercedes-Benz delivered 511,900 passenger cars and vans worldwide, a 6% decline year-on-year. That drop is less severe than the 14% slump suffered by the VW core brand or Audi’s 8.2% fall (367,139 units), but worse than BMW’s 5% retreat to 590,962 vehicles. The culprit is unmistakable: deliveries in China collapsed 30%, the sharpest single-market contraction among Germany’s premium players. North America and Europe, by contrast, posted gains in the same period, partially offsetting the Chinese rout.

Bright spots exist within the portfolio. Sales of fully electric vehicles surged 51% to around 63,000 units in the second quarter, as the company’s BEV pipeline gained traction. That progress, however, has been overshadowed by internal friction. CIO Katrin Lehmann is leaving the group on September 1, 2026, at her own request, with no successor yet named. Meanwhile, reports of a potential return to a 40-hour work week without wage compensation have sparked resistance from employees currently on a 35-hour schedule, raising the prospect of labor unrest just as management seeks cost efficiencies.

On the financial architecture front, Mercedes-Benz announced on July 9 that its subsidiary Mercedes-Benz International Finance B.V. would assume the role of issuer for several bond series from mid?July. The parent company retains an irrevocable guarantee for all payment obligations, a move aimed at streamlining group financing responsibilities.

Chart watchers see little reason for optimism. The share trades roughly 8% below its 50-day moving average and nearly 19% under the 200-day line. The relative strength index stands at 38.3, shy of oversold territory, while annualized volatility of almost 29% points to continued turbulence. The group’s market capitalization has shrunk to €42.49 billion.

Mercedes-Benz will host a pre-close call for analysts and investors on July 14, ahead of full second-quarter results expected at the end of the month. The event may offer clues on whether management can reconcile the brand’s technological ambition with the demand crisis in its largest single market.