2020年10月6日に、メルセデスベンツは収益力強化へ向けた戦略のアップデートを発表した。またコロナにより上半期は苦戦を強いられていたが、7-9月の乗用車販売は回復し、昨年を上回る62.6万台の規模へとメルセデスは持ち直した。

またメルセデスのケレニウス社長は7月に、「ダイムラーの目指す方向性は、LVMH社（ルイ・ヴィトンやディオールを始め、多数の高級ブランドを傘下に置く企業）である」と述べ、高級路線へのポジショニングをより明確なものにした。

（参考）ダイムラーはコロナ第1波の四半期を乗り切り、高級路線へ改革を続ける。

今回発表した戦略は以下、6つの柱から構成される。

戦略の概要

第1の柱：高級ブランド
ポジショニングをこれまで以上に明確化し、ラグジュアリーな顧客体験の提供を目指す。製品ポートフォリオ、ブランドコミュニケーション、販売ネットワークの見直しを実施。

第2の柱：利益の成長に集中
販売量と価格、販売チャンネルのバランスを最適化するとともに、収益力の最も高い市場セグメントに開発資源と投資資金を重点投入することで実現。

第3の柱：サブブランドを活用した顧客基盤の拡大
サブブランドのAMG、マイバッハ、G、EQのブランドを活用し、顧客基盤を拡大する。

第4の柱：顧客サービスを通して経常利益率を向上
アフターサービスや交換部品の販売、車載ソフトウエアの無線アップデート（OTA）、定期サービスを通して車両販売以外の分野で安定した売り上げを確保していく。メルセデスベンツの車両は2025年までに2,000万台以上がコネクテッドカーとなる見通しのため、ネットを通した販売に特に大きな期待をかけている。

第5の柱：車両の電動化と車載OS
「Electric First」戦略の一環として、次期大型車の電気自動車アーキテクチャ（EVA）に基づいた4台のまったく新しい電気自動車を発表。大型モデルに投入する専用アーキテクチャー「EVA」と中型車・コンパクトカー用のアーキテクチャー「MMA」の2種類を開発。EVAベースの車両は21年の「EQS」を皮切りに4モデルを市場へ投入する。MMAベースの車両は25年から販売する。
また製品開発リソースの比重を電気駆動装置分野へシフトさせ、走行距離と効率を高めるための新しい技術と概念に投資する。次世代のeMotorは社内で開発し、高度なインバーターと高電圧技術を備えている。社内でのバッテリー研究開発も、主要な戦略的パートナーであるCATL、Farasis、Sila Nanoとの緊密なパートナーシップによって進めている。新しい材料と製造プロセスにより、充電時間とコストを削減を目指す。
カーソフトウェアの分野では独自のMB.OSオペレーティングシステムを発表した。これも社内開発であり、2024年に発売する予定である。これにより、メルセデスベンツはすべての車両のドメインとその消費者インターフェースの制御を一元化できるようになる。

第6の柱：生産機能の見直しによるコスト削減
生産能力の調整と人件費の削減を通して固定費を19年比で20％以上のコスト削減実現を目指す。設備・研究開発投資額は25年までに20％以上のコスト削減削減実現を目指す。更に、変動費は25年まで、19年比で毎年1％引き下げていく。以上の措置により、売上高営業利益率（ROS）を25年以降、1ケタ台の半ばから後半、可能であれば2ケタ台へと引き上げる。
メルセデスベンツのROSは19年に3.6％となり、前年の7.8％
から大幅に低下。今年4-６月期（第2四半期）にはマイナス
1.5％へと悪化した。収益力を強化することで、かつてのROS
水準を取り戻す考えだ。

メルセデス戦略の原文

プレスリリースへのリンク

【ケレニウス社長のコメント】
Our strategy is designed to avoid non-core activities to focus on winning where it matters: dedicated electric vehicles and proprietary car software. We will take action on structural costs, target strong and sustained profitability. With this new strategy we are announcing our clear commitment to the full electrification of our product portfolio and our determination to ensure the business is fully carbon-neutral, in line with our Ambition 2039 target.

【戦略の6つの柱】

1. Think and act like a luxury brand
Luxury has always been part of the soul of Mercedes-Benz. Going forward, the brand will see a renewed focus on luxury, making it an integral part of all products, customer interactions and digital technologies. Mercedes-Benz will reshape its product portfolio, brand communications and its sales network to deliver a true luxury experience – a luxury experience that will be electric, software-driven and sustainable.

2. Focus on profitable growth
Mercedes-Benz will take actions to improve and recalibrate its market strategy. These will focus on optimizing the balance between volume, price and channel mix to ensure improved contribution margins from the current and future portfolio. Mercedes-Benz will also focus its product development resources and capital on the most profitable parts of the market and the segments in which it competes, in order to ensure structurally higher profitability

3. Expand customer base by growing sub-brands
Mercedes-Benz is the most valuable luxury car brand in the world, according to Interbrand. It will remain the guiding star. But Mercedes-Benz also has extraordinary sub-brands: AMG, Maybach, G and EQ. The new strategy will take them to the next level – accelerating their development, with clear and targeted plans to unlock their potential and drive substantial incremental EBIT growth. AMG is set for the next level with high-performance electrification, starting in 2021. Its links with Formula 1 will also intensify next year, to reflect its identity as Mercedes’ high performance sub-brand. Maybach will pursue global opportunities, doubling in size and going electric. The demand for the legendary G is ahead of current capacity. The legend will grow, and will electrify. With the EQ brand, Mercedes-Benz will address a new audience with progressive high-technology products, built on dedicated electric architectures.

4. Embrace customers and grow recurrent revenues
Mercedes-Benz is committed to fostering life-long relationships with its customers. The aim is for customers to love owning a Mercedes-Benz and to be so satisfied by the relationship that they stay with the brand for a long-time, ideally forever. Now, Mercedes-Benz will aim for even stronger loyalty, higher repeat purchases and rapid growth in recurrent revenues – from services and parts and also increasingly from Over-the-Air (OTA) updates and subscription services. The growing number of connected cars provides very significant revenue opportunities in the future, as the Mercedes-Benz fleet will reach 20 million fully connected vehicles in total by 2025.

5. Lead in electric drive and car software
Mercedes-Benz is aiming to take the lead in electric drive and car software with ambitious product development targets and the accelerated introduction of new technology. As part of its »Electric First« strategy, Mercedes-Benz has announced four all-new electric vehicles based on its upcoming large-car Electric Vehicle Architecture (EVA). The EQS luxury sedan is the first representative of this new dedicated architecture and will reach the market in 2021 with an electric range of more than 700 km (WLTP). It will be followed by the EQE, the EQS-SUV and the EQE-SUV. In addition, AMG, Maybach and G will go electric. From 2025, multiple further models will be added to the electric vehicles portfolio on the second all-new dedicated electric platform, the Mercedes-Benz Modular Architecture (MMA) designed for compact and medium-sized cars.
Mercedes-Benz will shift even more of its product development resources and expertise to electric drive, and will invest in new technologies and concepts to accelerate electric range and efficiency. The next generation of eMotors are developed in house and will feature sophisticated inverter and high voltage technology. The company is making huge strides in battery technology – with in-house battery R&D complimented by close partnerships with key strategic partners CATL, Farasis and Sila Nano. New materials and production processes will increase range, reduce charging time and cost.
Mercedes-Benz also announced an exciting next step in electric vehicle development today, with the Vision EQXX technology program. The aim is to build an electric vehicle with spectacular efficiency and range. Mercedes-Benz has tasked its engineering group with pushing the boundaries of electric range and efficiency with a cross-functional, multi-disciplinary team based in Stuttgart, supported by specialists from the Mercedes-Benz F1 HPP group in the UK, who bring expertise in eMotors plus motorsport-inspired development speed. While Vision EQXX is a technology program, it is expected to result in innovations that will quickly make their way into series production cars.
In the area of car software, Mercedes-Benz has announced its own proprietary MB.OS operating system. This will be developed in-house and is scheduled for launch in 2024. It will allow Mercedes-Benz to centralize the control of all the vehicles’ domains and also its consumer interfaces. Proprietary software development will allow greater speed and more frequent updates, and will be designed around scalable architectures that will control future development costs.

“At Mercedes-Benz, we strive for nothing less than taking the lead in electric drive and car software. We will do this with an intelligent electric platform strategy and a proprietary software development approach,” said Markus Schäfer, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz AG, responsible for Daimler Group Research and Mercedes-Benz Cars COO. “We are going to do it the Mercedes way, bringing a true luxury experience to the world of electric and connected cars. We will leverage in-house technology development and strategic partnerships to deliver superb products. And from 2025 on, we are targeting strong contribution margins for all new architectures thanks to high commonality and controlled investment, and ongoing falls in the cost of battery systems. While we will expand the electrified portfolio towards a share of more than 50% of global sales by 2030, our investments in combustion engine development will decline quickly and the number of combustion engine variants will fall by 70% by 2030.”

6. Lower cost base and improve industrial footprint
Mercedes-Benz will improve its profitability and cash generation and take actions to prepare for the future and to accelerate the transition to electric drive. 2020’s events have confirmed that the company’s break-even point is too high and, with the transformational challenges ahead, further actions will be needed. Mercedes-Benz will therefore take significant new steps to reduce the cost base and improve the industrial footprint in the period to 2025. Fixed costs will be cut by more than 20% by 2025 in absolute terms compared to the 2019 baseline, via reduced spending, capacity adjustments and lower personnel costs. Capex and R&D expenditure are also set to decrease by more than 20% by 2025 compared to 2019. Variable costs will be reduced by 1% net per annum compared to the level of 2019 during the period until 2025, including increased and prolonged savings targets for material costs. This target excludes the effects of a higher xEV mix.

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