Mercedes Benz Group Ag

Willkommen zur Telefonkonferenz von Mercedes-Benz. Diese Konferenz wird aufgezeichnet. Die Aufzeichnung sowie unsere Hinweise zum Thema Datenschutz finden Sie im Anschluss auf der Webseite des Unternehmens. Nach einer kurzen Einführung folgt eine Fragerunde. Sollten während der Konferenz Schwierigkeiten auftreten, drücken Sie bitte 0 und die Raute-Taste auf der Tastatur Ihres Telefons, um Unterstützung zu erhalten. Beachten Sie, dass unsere Ausführungen vorausschauende Aussagen zu unserer aktuellen Einschätzung künftiger Vorgänge enthalten. Diese sind einer Reihe von Risiken und Unsicherheiten unterworfen, für die Sie Beispiele in den veröffentlichten Dokumenten finden. Sollten sich die den vorausschauenden Aussagen zugrunde liegenden Annahmen als unrichtig erweisen, könnten die tatsächlichen Ereignisse wesentlich von den in diesen Aussagen genannten oder implizit zum Ausdruck gebrachten Einschätzungen abweichen. Wir haben weder die Absicht noch übernehmen wir eine Verpflichtung, vorausschauende Aussagen laufend zu aktualisieren, da diese ausschließlich auf den Umständen am Tag der Veröffentlichung basieren. Und nun übergebe ich an Willem Spelten. Vielen Dank.

Guten Morgen allerseits und herzlich willkommen zu unserer Telefonkonferenz im Rahmen der Veröffentlichung unserer Geschäftszahlen für das dritte Quartal 2025. Hier in dieser Konferenz begrüße ich unseren Vorstandsvorsitzenden, Ulla Kelenius, und unseren Finanzvorstand, Harald Wilhelm. Bevor wir mit der Fragerunde zu unseren Quartalszahlen starten, wie üblich noch folgende Hinweise. Der Operator wird das Prozedere zur Registrierung Ihrer Fragen gleich nochmal erläutern. Sie können Ihre Fragen dann auf Deutsch oder Englisch stellen. Die Antwort erfolgt in der jeweiligen Sprache. You can ask your questions in German or in English. The answer will be given in respective language. Our telephone conference ends at 10 o'clock, so in about 40 minutes. The recording of the call will be posted on our website. If you, as a questioner, do not agree with the publication of your recording, then we ask you to share this with us until 12 o'clock today. With that, Ulla, you have the floor.

Thank you, Willem, and good morning also from my side. The most important message in the first place. Our financial results in the third quarter are in line with our overall annual forecast, which we have confirmed today. We control the company through the challenging business environment, from customs and political changes over the intensive competition in China to the heterogeneous electricity rush. But at the same time, we create the foundations for a successful future. Unser Produktoffensive läuft auf Hochtouren. Der Auftragseingang für den CLA ist auf einem sehr guten Niveau. Und wir stehen erst am Anfang des weltweiten Rollarts. Nächste Woche ist Marktstart in China und USA folgt da danach. Etwas später haben wir außerdem den neuen CLA Shooting Brake präsentiert. Er verfügt über dieselbe Produktsubstanz, aber bietet noch mehr Raum. Ein wichtiges Auto für flotten Kunden. Und beide diese Autos kriegen ja auch hier vor Weihnachten A very attractive hybridized high-tech combustion engine variant. The new electric Mercedes-Benz GLC carries the new face of the Mercedes-Benz brand. And so we want to continue the success story of our bestseller in the electric world. The car is immediately available in Europe. In total, we will present over 40 new vehicles by the end of 2027. In the top end segment, we extend our offer. There we are traditionally strong and also earn good money. The core segment is the backbone of our department. Here we complete our offer across all drives. After the GLC, among other things, the electric C-Class also follows next year. And in the entry segment, we focus on the most successful models. We will offer an attractive entry-level model in the future. We have a look at the European market in particular. All these products will be included in the next generation of Mercedes technology. With the CLA, we first introduced our own operating system, MBOS. This is the first software-defined Mercedes. And we roll out this software throughout the entire portfolio, both for the battery electric ones, as well as the hybrids and the high-tech capacitors. And also when it comes to automated driving, we are making great progress. Next week, our L2++ system will celebrate its premiere in China. We are at the forefront of that. And in terms of electric drive, our concept car AMG GTXX has set a number of new records. One of them in less than eight days around the world. That corresponds to over 40,000 kilometers. That was not just a PR number, but it was a real test drive. Because next year we will bring the technology that made this performance possible into production. The implementation of our strategy is in full swing, driven by a strong team, also with new heads, fresh ideas and a lot of energy. As far as the market conditions are concerned, we remain realistic with a look forward. At the same time, we are confident that our strong new products will develop their full power in the coming years. We continue to concentrate on our product offensive. We work with great discipline to continue to increase efficiency and resilience in the entire company. And we adapt when the framework conditions change. This adaptability is very important in such a dynamic environment.

Thank you very much and now to your questions. Thank you very much, Ola. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now start with the question round. Bitte nehmen Sie sich Zeit für Ihre Fragen und stellen Sie diese langsam und deutlich. Der Operator erklärt, wie vorhin angekündigt, jetzt nochmal die genaue Vorgehensweise. Vielen Dank.

Sehr geehrte Teilnehmer, wenn Sie jetzt eine Frage stellen möchten, wählen Sie bitte 9 und Stern auf Ihrer Telefontastatur. Es ertönt eine Ansage, eine Wortmeldung wurde registriert. Möchten Sie Ihre Frage zurückziehen, wählen Sie bitte 3 und Stern. Es ertönt eine Ansage, eine Wortmeldung wurde gelöscht. So, and we have already the first questions here in the line.

The first is Rachel Moore from Thomson Reuters.

Hello, good morning. A question to China. So, Mr. Chelenius, you said it was a multi-year task. When are you going to start with growth again and how do you want to do that? So, what measures are planned there? For example, are price adjustments planned? And then another short question about AI. Cost savings are a big topic at Mercedes right now. Does AI play a role and can you quantify that? Thank you.

Yes, good morning on the subject of China. We manage our go-to-market strategy very well. I said it before, there is an incredible competitive intensity that influences the whole market. And it's about being very thoughtful in terms of operations and not getting into price wars unnecessarily. Maybe today in Q3 not a... make a guidance for sales figures this year and beyond, which we have done today. But I would like to say so much that our approach for China has many different components. The first and most important thing is product. All these products that we now have in the pipeline. angefangen jetzt mit dem CLA, aber GLC noch wichtiger und so weiter. Die sind ja auch angepasst für ChinaFit. Also nicht nur, dass die lange Radstände und Dedication to the rear and solche Dinge haben, die ein Muss sind in China, sondern sind auch fully competitive in Sachen digitales Ökosystem. Also Smart Cockpit, Infotainment, ADAS, etc. Das gepaart mit den klassischen Tugenden, was eine Mercedes zu einer Mercedes macht, That is the secret sauce for a Mercedes. Not only in China, in the whole world, but also especially in China. So we will put a lot of effort into it in the next two, three years, our product portfolio. That is almost a complete hoisting over which we are talking. What also has to be done in China is to make the cost structure even more Chinese. And there you have to adjust the optimum between world scale effects and what you can achieve on site. We are in the middle of that. That means, in China for China, you have to reach more or less 100% Chinese for China in terms of cost structure. We are of course looking at our production structures, our trading structures and so on, that we bring everything in an optimum and harmony. And that is the reason why I called it a multi-year task. But we invest there. We are one of the players who play forward there, but carefully. On the subject of AI, and especially the developments in generative AI, that is an absolute game-changer in all industries, for the whole world, for all people. We will not only use AI in our products, we have been using it for many years, and also in our company, in all corners and ends, And that's a chance, an absolute chance for an increase in productivity here in the next few years. We also take this chance. However, you should consider that when you use the AI, that you don't just simply take a status quo world and then you put the AI on top of it, but you have to put it together with process adjustments, sometimes organizational adjustments, So, the new industrial era in the era of artificial intelligence has just begun. This will certainly shape the world in the next many years and is an exciting opportunity for us.

Yes, the next in line is Michael Zschäppel from Handelsblatt.

Yes, good morning everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to ask questions. I have three complexes. The first is the chip crisis in Xperia. Ich würde mich freuen, wenn es ein bisschen Fleisch an den Knochen gibt. Also inwiefern sind Sie derzeit davon getroffen? Droht womöglich Kurzarbeit? Das so ein bisschen zu den Folgen. Aber auch, was tun Sie eigentlich? Sind Sie gerade auf der Suche nach alternativen Lieferanten? Sorgen Sie irgendwie anderweitig vor? Da würde mich Ihre Reaktion interessieren, wie Sie darauf reagieren. Das ist der erste Block. Und dann noch zwei kurze Fragen. One topic is U.S. debt. How big were the influences of U.S. debt on your profits in the past year? And the third point, you are currently saving 5 billion until 2027. How far are you on this path? How much of these 5 billion is already saved? Maybe you can give a few more insights. Thank you very much.

With the topic of Nexperia and chip supply, I would like to take the bird's eye view first. What is happening here? Perhaps first of all, in a modern high-tech car, you can find practically all five continents. From these many thousands of components over several supply chain tiers, you can find practically all continents. This is how the global automotive industry is networked. Von diesen Komponenten gibt es jede Menge Knotenpunkte, wo gewisse Technologien sich konzentrieren auf einzelne Spieler. Das ist nicht nur für die Automobilindustrie einzigartig, aber es ist auch in der Automobilindustrie der Fall. Wir haben ja gelernt in der Chip-Krise vor zwei, drei Jahren, dass wenn man zu viel Single Sourcing Exposure hat von einzelnen Standorten, und manchmal einzelne Lieferanten, dann kann es zu erheblichen Störungen kommen. Und selbstverständlich haben wir umgestellt und haben in jeden Mengen Albleiterkomponentengruppen, dual sourcing gemacht, unterschiedliche Lieferanten, aber auch unterschiedliche Standorte, weil manchmal gibt es Naturkatastrophen oder andere Dinge, die es beeinflussen. Aber wer glaubt, dass eine komplexe Industrie wie die Automobilindustrie eine hundertprozentige Supplier-Redundanz einführen könnte. Diese Kommentare hört man ja manchmal. Ihr habt ja die Chip-Krise gehabt. Warum steht ihr wieder da? Wer glaubt, dass diese hundertprozentige Redundanz möglich ist, versteht nicht viel von der Automobilindustrie. Weil das würde die Kostenstruktur ins Unermessliche treiben. So funktioniert nicht ein Markt, Zumindest nicht ein Markt, wo man wettbewerbsfähig sein möchte. And Xperia ist so ein Knotenpunkt. Es sind zwar keine in Anführungszeichen high-tech chips, sondern eher einfachere. Und selbstverständlich gibt es auch andere Quellen. Wir haben auch andere Quellen. Und selbstverständlich gucken wir uns auch andere Lieferquellen an. Dieser Fall ist aber völlig anders wie die Chip-Krise. Es ist nur ein politisch verursachter Shortfall. which is the main issue between the USA and China, where Europe is in the middle. That means the solution to the problem is political and is not, like in the chip crisis, a change in production capacities or anything else. It has to be solved politically. Of course, we are on the move, we are short-term covered and we are looking for other sourcing points. But you can see here, since practically the entire industry is affected, can be affected, Solche Knotenpunkte wird es immer geben. Das ist der Grund, warum wir Freihandel, Kooperationen und Diskussionen mit strategischen Partnern, aber auch mit strategischen Wettbewerbern aufrechterhalten müssen. Weil die Welt des baden-württembergerischen Fürstentums als Selbstversorger, die wird es nicht geben. Und die ist übrigens auch nicht sinnvoll.

Mr. Schäckel, on the subject of US interest rates. In the third quarter, the US interest rate and the change in the total interest rate reactions in total led to an effect on the sales returns of 1.5%. As you have seen, we had 4.8% in the third quarter for cars without these changes. In 2025, that would have been a 6.3% sales return. The value was a little lower in the third quarter than we had thought. This is because the share of US vehicle deliveries was a little lower. In the fourth quarter, they go up. That's why we assume that the effect of the interest rate in the order of 1.5% to 2% returns on profitability. We are doing very well with our efficiency and savings program. In February of this year we had the detailed what we are doing here. That means we reduce the production costs by 10%. We measure this compared to the IST 2024 and the goal for 2027. That means a net reduction of 10%. For the manufacturing material, 8%. For the fixed costs, 10%. For the investments, 10%. And if I look in here now, In 2025, what we have achieved so far over the nine months, I think we are doing very well here. I would even say we are slightly ahead. We have also seen that we have made good progress for our personnel cost reduction program in the third quarter. And that will of course have favorable effects in 2026. But that doesn't mean we won't stop here. No, we will continue there. There are still big tasks and requirements for 2026 and 2027 to get to these values that I just mentioned. And in view of the dynamic market development since the beginning of the year, we will probably focus here or there again. Hi, I would ask my question in English, if that's okay.

It is. Yeah, thank you. So looking to the U.S., then OEMs like Ford and GM have drastically reduced their tariff provisions in response to recent adjustments to the U.S. tariff regime that affect auto parts that fall under the USMCA agreement. We're talking about changes in the hundreds of millions of dollars How do you think that change, which essentially preferences U.S. automakers, affects your competitive position in that market?

So, Sebastian, of course, Mercedes-Benz is a global automaker with a strong presence in all the main markets. Of course, our home market, Europe, North America, China, but also the other important markets around the world, Korea, Japan, Australia, and more than 150 around the world. Part of that strength that we have built over 100 years is a sophisticated web of imports and exports. So, indeed, we are from Europe to the United States, one of the biggest industrial, if not the biggest industrial importer countries. Equally, we're out of the United States, one of the biggest, if not the biggest, industrial exporter in pretty much all directions towards the EU, towards China and other places. So when the world trade order changes, it throws a curveball at us. I'm very happy that we have a very strong production footprint in the United States on the SUVs, passenger car side, with operations in Alabama and on the light commercial bands in South Carolina. The most recent communication by the administration has been to prolong the 3.75% rule on imported parts. We will benefit from that as well. And we are looking, as we have communicated earlier this year, at our production footprint in the United States. This is not something where you push a button and it's overnight change. This is something that unfolds over the next three, four, five years. And in that context, with the strong position that we have in the United States market, we believe that we have a growth potential. So in that five-year or five-year and beyond perspective, The U.S. is quite clearly for us a market that we look at as a growth market. But the industrial adjustments to at least optimize the current tariff situation is something that takes a few years to address.

Then we'll stay with the English-speaking media with Stephen Wilmot from Wall Street Journal, please.

Hello, can you hear me? Yes. Thank you.

Yeah, well, to follow up on Sebastian's question, there seems to be some measure of tariff stability, at least on the US side now. And so I just wondered whether, now that you have some sense of normality, perhaps a new normal, the U.S. How are you thinking about your pricing? Have you got to the point where you can perhaps increase prices to compensate for the tariffs? Or how cautiously, I suppose, are you approaching that question of increasing prices in the U.S.? Thank you.

The short answer is We're cautious in an asymmetric situation, as was alluded to by the previous question. This is something that you have to handle in a thoughtful way and build upon the strength where we have also an industrial footprint in the U.S. that gives us an advantage vis-a-vis some of the players. But here we take a prudent and cautious approach with the customer in mind.

So, then we come back to Germany. The next is Veronika Kanzler from the Stuttgarter Zeitung, Stuttgarter Nachrichten.

Good morning. Mr. Wilhelm, you said earlier that you are satisfied with the course of the efficiency program. And I wanted to ask again. You had announced in the NLP that you would save 5 billion euros annually. Bisher, wenn ich Sie richtig sehe, haben Sie jetzt bis in Q3 circa 1,4 Milliarden Euro eingespart und einen Großteil davon über Absendungen. Jetzt ist der Turbo ja ausgelaufen. Deswegen würde ich mich interessieren, ob Sie zuversichtlich sind, bis Ende 2025 auf die 5 Milliarden Euro zu kommen. Und Sie sagten, dass Sie nochmal nachschärfen wollen. Vielleicht könnten Sie das nochmal ausführen. Wie genau? Vielen Dank.

Yes, please, Chancellor. First of all, to sort the numbers, the only official reference that we have given to our mining program regarding the savings goals are the ones that I have just presented in the question. This is the reference to our capital market in February. mit den gegenüber 2024 angegebenen Ist-Daten und den Zielen bis zum Jahr 2027. Diese 5 Milliarden kommentiere ich nicht weiter. 1,4 Milliarden, der Betrag, auf den Sie referenzieren, sind die Belastungen, die wir in den ersten neun Monaten dieses Jahres für das Personalkostenreduzierungsprogramm in the books. I had said in the conference before, in the analyst conference, that it is to be assumed that the amount will go up a little again, if we just put it between 1.5 and 2 billion for the entire year. These are burdens this year in the profit and loss calculation for Mercedes-Benz. These will, of course, lead to corresponding personnel costs in 2026 and the following, and relatively quickly, so that we assume that these costs or these expenses will be amortized in a period of about two years. Bei allen anderen Maßnahmen, weil hier geht es ja nicht nur um Personalkostenreduzierung, hier geht es um Einkauf, um Produktion, um Ausperwickel, um Effizienz in allen Bereichen, inklusive auch Entwicklung und, und, und, sind wir, wie vorhin schon gesagt, gut unterwegs gegenüber den Zielen, die wir uns hier im Februar gesetzt haben. After the market environment has developed even more dynamically in the course of 2025 and I think we are also trying to take a realistic perspective for the future, we are thinking about whether or not we have to refine these goals again at some point. But we will talk about this at a given time.

And the next is Oliver Schmale from the DPA.

Guten Tag, ich hätte noch eine Frage. Sie haben viel über das Personalabbauprogramm gesprochen. Wie viele Leute sind denn inzwischen gegangen oder haben denn unterschrieben? Wollen Sie da nicht mal eine konkrete Zahl nennen? Das Handelsblatt sprach von 4.000. Das wäre jetzt die Möglichkeit, mal eine Zahl zu nennen. Vielen Dank.

We have already decided from the beginning not to name a concrete number and also avoid speculations. Of course, there are always people who speculate. We can say so much that we are within the framework of what we have planned. And I would like to emphasize that we are doing this in both ways, with very respectable packages for discoveries. Also ist auch unsere Verantwortung für den sozialen Aspekt von so einem Thema sehr bewusst und möchten aber jetzt keine konkrete Zahl nennen.

Und dann gehen wir zu Michael Gerster von der Automobilwoche.

Ja, guten Morgen. Kann mich verstehen? Ja, alles gut. Yes, I might also have a question about the model offensive. So you always say 40 new models, so it has to come down to growth at some point. I mean, you'll probably end up with 1.8, 1.9 million vehicles this year. Can you maybe tell me when you want to cross the 2 million threshold again? And then you have high expenses for legal concerns, about 500 million. Can you explain what that is?

Good morning, Mr. Gerster. To the first question, as before in my list of calls, we are not making a guidance statement here for 26 consecutive years, but today we are focusing on Q3 and the end of this year. is basically what we said in the Capital Markets Day in February. Many of these models, and especially in 2026, we have a crossover, where some new models come and others are at the end of the product life cycle. That is the reason why we have guided relatively carefully for 2025 and 2026. And as Harald Wilhelm said before, the market in 2025, especially in China, has turned out to be even more challenging than originally thought. But we are also very confident when we look at the reaction to the first products in this model offensive, so that in the course of the year 2027, which we said in February, We want to start seeing effects from this product offensive. And basically we haven't changed anything on this statement, not even today.

And Mr. Gerstner, regarding legal proceedings, I assume you are referring to the British Financial Review, the FCA, which in October produced a draft of a paper in which Frühere Praktiken bei Autofinanzierungen, wo Kommissionen Provisionen gewährt werden von den Autofinanzierenden an die Händler und im Umkehrschluss dann die Finanzierungszinssätze an die Kunden kritisiert werden und unterstellt wird, dass es hier eventuell zu einem Schaden gekommen ist für die Kunden. Dieses Papier ist im Oktober herausgekommen als Entwurf. Auf Basis dieses Entwurfs haben wir eine Abschätzung gemacht, die wir dann in dem dritten Quartal hier zurückgestellt haben. Die Behörde, die FCA, ist allerdings in Kontakt mit den verschiedenen Stakeholdern. um hier auch die Position der Finanzierer, Schrägstrich der OEMs, einzuholen. Und hieran arbeiten wir und werden unsere Position auch dementsprechend eingeben an die FCA im Laufe des Jahres.

Gut, Dankeschön. Und dann haben wir als Nächsten William Wilkes von Bloomberg.

Hallo, guten Morgen, Ola, guten Morgen, Harald. Bezüglich Nexperia, ich spreche davon, dass Mercedes kurzfristig abgesichert ist. Könntet ihr bitte sagen, was kurzfristig genau bedeutet? Wird ihr auch in drei oder vier Wochen noch gut besorgt, falls es dahin keine politische Lösung des Problems gibt? Und falls sie doch in Engpässe geratet, wäre die Strategie dann dieselbe wie während der Chipkrise nach der Pandemie, also dass sie die vorhandenen Bestände auf hohe wertige Modelle konzentriert und die Produktion von Einstiegsmodellen drosselt.

Danke. Jetzt möchte ich nicht spekulieren, was passiert nach dem Kurzfristzeitraum, zumal durch eine politische Lösung von heute auf morgen das Thema sich auch entspannen könnte. Und auch da wissen wir nicht genau, was aus den Top-Gesprächen, die ja geführt werden, rauskommt. Da warten wir ab. Of course, we had a certain buffer volume, otherwise we would have stopped immediately. That is understandable. We also learned a lot from the chip crisis. This is, however, as I said before, a completely different case. It has nothing to do with a real supply restriction or any other event, but is a political decision. And on the subject of dual sourcing, of course, we look at the other sources and are intensively on the way. But at this point in time, I don't want to start speculating on a topic where the world could really change every day. So I'll leave it there for now.

Okay, thank you. Next, Stefan Kronek from the Börsenzeitung, please.

Good morning, Stefan Kronek, my name is Stefan Kronek from the Börsenzeitung. I have two inquiries. One is about the return on shares. You have announced at the beginning of next year that you will start with a volume of 2 billion euros. Can you arrange that to your original plan of a total of 5 billion euros? This is my first question, please. And the second complex is the result in the third quarter. We have recorded 750 million euros on the EBIT level, a decline of 70%. If you look at the net result, i.e. after taxes, Mercedes-Benz has earned 1.2 billion euros on the corporate level, i.e. only minus 31%. What has happened in between? How does the financial result look? and the tax burden. Could you please go into that again? Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Groning. I would like to clarify the first question. We have a very clear so-called capital allocation framework. Now we look at Wilhelm again, how to translate that, sorry for that. He says that we generate the cash flow, to 100% to our shareholders in the form of dividends and in the form of stock returns. This is what is left of the cash flow after the dividend. We generated 4 billion cash flows in half a year and paid 4 billion dividends. and said, let's see what we can generate in the second half of the year. As you have seen, in the third quarter, 1.4 billion, and we are also assuming in the fourth quarter that we will generate even more positive cash flow. On this basis, we have now decided to start 2 billion in shares, not only next year, but from the third half, i.e., nächste Woche. Die Umsetzung wird aber natürlich länger als bis Jahresende dauern. Die wird bis in 2026 gehen. Deswegen haben wir auch hier angekündigt, diese 2 Milliarden über bis zu 12 Monate umzusetzen. Wir hatten im Februar angekündigt, dass wir in Toto über 2 Jahre 5 Milliarden Euro ... ... ... ... ... ... ... To the second question about the difference in EBIT reported versus the net result, well spotted, what happened there in the tax burden, so to speak, there is here in the framework of the investment instant program to strengthen the economic location of Germany, the announcement to reduce the body tax from 15% to 10% in the period 2028 to 2032. This has led to the fact that today, in 2025, The third taxes have to be adjusted, which led to a tax return in the third quarter of around 500 million. That's why you see here a quarterly result based on net profit, which is higher than the EBIT reported.

Good, thank you.

So, und dann haben wir zum Abschluss nochmal die Stuttgarter Zeitung, diesmal mit Klaus Köster, bitte.

Ich hatte meine Frage eigentlich zurückgesucht, meine beiden Fragen sind schon beide beantwortet und gestellt. Vielen Dank.

Okay, vielen Dank, Herr Köster. Dann sind wir tatsächlich einen Ticken schneller am Ende als gedacht. Dann wünsche ich Ihnen allen heute noch ein erfolgreichen Tag und wenn Sie weitere Fragen haben, rufen Sie uns wie immer gerne an. Schönen Tag noch. Ciao.