Mercedes-Benz


Mercedes-Benz, commonly referred to simply as Mercedes and occasionally as Benz, is a German automotive brand that was founded in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG is based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Mercedes-Benz AG manufactures luxury vehicles and light commercial vehicles, all branded under the Mercedes-Benz name. From November 2019 onwards, the production of Mercedes-Benz-branded heavy commercial vehicles has been managed by Daimler Truck, which separated from the Mercedes-Benz Group to form an independent entity at the end of 2021.
In 2018, Mercedes-Benz became the world’s largest premium vehicle brand, with a sales volume of 2.31 million passenger cars.
The roots of the brand trace back to the 1901 Mercedes by Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft and the 1886 Benz Patent-Motorwagen and 1894 Benz Velo by Carl Benz, which is widely recognized as the first automobile powered by an internal combustion engine. The brand’s slogan is "The Best or Nothing".

History

Mercedes-Benz traces its origins to Carl Benz's first internal combustion engine in a car, seen in the Benz Patent-Motorwagen – financed by Bertha Benz's dowry and patented in January 1886 – and Gottlieb Daimler and their engineer Wilhelm Maybach's conversion of a stagecoach, with the addition of a petrol engine, introduced later that year. The Mercedes automobile was first marketed in 1901 by Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft.
Emil Jellinek-Mercedes, an Austrian automobile entrepreneur who worked with DMG, registered the trademark in 1902, naming the 1901 Mercedes 35 hp after his daughter Mercedes Jellinek. Jellinek was a businessman and marketing strategist who promoted "horseless" Daimler automobiles among the highest circles of society. At the time, it was a meeting place for the haute volée of France and Europe, especially in winter. His customers included the Rothschild family and other wealthy clients, but as early as 1901, he was selling Mercedes cars in the "New World" as well, including to billionaires Rockefeller, Astor, Morgan, and Taylor. At the Nice race he attended in 1899, Jellinek drove under the pseudonym "Monsieur Mercédès". Many consider that race the birth of Mercedes-Benz as a brand. In 1901, the name "Mercedes" was re-registered by DMG worldwide as a protected trademark. The first Mercedes-Benz branded vehicles were produced in 1926, following the merger of Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler's companies into the Daimler-Benz company on 28 June of the same year.
File:Gottlieb Daimler 1890s2.jpg|thumb|left|170px|Gottlieb Daimler – founder of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft
Gottlieb Daimler was born on 17 March 1834 in Schorndorf. After training as a gunsmith and working in France, he attended the Polytechnic School in Stuttgart from 1857 to 1859. After completing various technical activities in France and England, he started working as a draftsman in Geislingen in 1862. At the end of 1863, he was appointed workshop inspector at a machine-tool factory in Reutlingen, where he met Wilhelm Maybach in 1865.
Throughout the 1930s, Mercedes-Benz produced the 770 model, a car that was notably popular throughout Germany's Nazi period. Adolf Hitler was known to have driven in a model of this car during his time in power, with modified custom bulletproof windshields. However, most of the currently surviving 770 models were sold at auctions due to private buyers. One of the cars is currently on display at the War Museum in Ottawa, Ontario.
From 1937 onward, Daimler Benz focused increasingly on military products such as the LG3000 lorry and the DB600 and the DB601 aero engines. To build the latter, in 1936, it built a factory hidden in the forest at Genshagen around 10 km south of Berlin. By 1942, the company had mostly stopped producing cars, and was now devoted to war production. According to its own statement, in 1944, almost half of its 63,610 employees were forced labourers, prisoners of war, or concentration-camp detainees. Another source quotes this figure at 46,000. The company later paid $12 million in reparations to the labourers' families.
In 1958, the two companies began a partnership to sell their cars in the United States with Studebaker. A few American-based Daimler Benz dealerships were converted into Mercedes-Benz dealerships when Daimler's non-Mercedes-partnered company closed in 1966.
Over the decades, Mercedes-Benz has introduced many electronic and mechanical [|innovations] and safety features that later became common. Currently, Mercedes-Benz is one of the best-known and longest-standing automotive brands in the world. The pontiff's Popemobile has often been sourced from Mercedes-Benz.
In November 2019, Daimler AG announced that Mercedes-Benz, until that point a company marque, would be spun off into a separate, wholly owned subsidiary called Mercedes-Benz AG. The new subsidiary would manage the Mercedes-Benz car and van business. Mercedes-Benz-badged trucks and buses would be part of the Daimler Truck AG subsidiary.
For information relating to the three-pointed star symbol of the brand, see under the title Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft, including the merger into Daimler-Benz.
In May 2022, Mercedes-Benz announced that it had recently sold the most expensive car at the price of $142 million. The car is a very rare 1955 Mercedes-Benz SLR that has been kept in the German automaker's collection and bought by a private owner. Mercedes in an announcement said that the sale will be used to establish the Mercedes-Benz Fund.
In June 2022, Mercedes-Benz recalled almost one million vehicles built between 2004 and 2015, due to potential problems with their braking system, caused by possible "advanced corrosion".

Subsidiaries and alliances

As of the Daimler AG company split, the Mercedes-Benz Cars division now handled the Mercedes-Benz- and the Smart-branded cars' production.

Mercedes-AMG

became a majority-owned division of Mercedes-Benz in 1999. The company was integrated into DaimlerChrysler in 1999, and became Mercedes-Benz AMG on 1 January 1999.

Mercedes-Maybach

Daimler's ultra-luxury Maybach brand was under the Mercedes-Benz Cars division until December 2012, when production was stopped due to decreased sales. It now exists under the Mercedes-Maybach name, with the models being luxury-focused, enhanced models of Mercedes-Benz cars, such as the 2016 Mercedes-Maybach S600. The Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 SUV debuted in November 2019.

China

Daimler partnered with BYD Auto to make and sell a battery-electric car called Denza in China. However, after reducing its stake in 2021, the Stuttgart-based company has now exited Denza completely: the Mercedes-Benz Group is no longer involved in the Chinese car brand Denza, as it sold its last ten per cent stake in Denza in July 2024. In 2016, Daimler announced plans to sell Mercedes-Benz-badged fully electric battery cars in China. Beijing Benz is a joint venture with the BAIC Group to produce the Mercedes-Benz branded cars in China.

Vietnam

Established in 1995, Mercedes-Benz Vietnam became a joint venture between Saigon Mechanical Engineering Corporation and Daimler AG. Daimler AG assembles various Mercedes-Benz models from CKD kits at its factory in Ho Chi Minh City. The factory is a joint venture with Saigon Mechanical Engineering Corporation. In 2021–2022, Mercedes-Benz Vietnam invested approximately 33 million USD to upgrade six departments at this factory in preparation for the assembly of AMG models. The 1996 Mercedes E230 was the first model produced by the Mercedes-Benz Vietnam assembly plant and was part of the initial batch assembled locally.

Production

Factories

Other than in its native birthplace, Germany, Mercedes-Benz vehicles are or have been partly manufactured or assembled in:
Sovereign stateContinentNote
Algeria

Quality rankings

Before the mid 1990s, Mercedes-Benz had a very strong reputation for quality and durability. Mercedes-Benz's passenger cars were considered "tanks" or "indestructible" by owners who had their own Mercedes for very long periods. Some objective reviewers looking at passenger vehicles, such as J. D. Power surveys, demonstrated a downturn in reputation by these criteria in the late 1990s and early 2000s. By mid-2005, Mercedes temporarily returned to the industry average for initial quality, a measure of problems after the first 90 days of ownership, according to J. D. Power. In J. D. Power's Initial Quality Study for the first quarter of 2007, Mercedes showed dramatic improvement by climbing from 25th to 5th place and earning several awards for its newer models. For 2008, Mercedes-Benz's initial quality rating improved by yet another mark, to 4th place. On top of this accolade, it also received the Platinum Plant Quality Award for their Mercedes branded Sindelfingen, Germany body assembly plant. J. D. Power's 2011 US Initial Quality and Vehicle Dependability Studies both ranked Mercedes-Benz vehicles above average in build quality and reliability. In J. D. Power's United Kingdom Survey in 2011, Mercedes cars were rated above average. Additionally, iSeeCars.com study for Reuters in 2014 found Mercedes to have the lowest vehicle recall rate out of competitors.

Models

Current model range

Mercedes-Benz offers a versatile range of consumer-passenger, light commercial and heavy commercial equipment. These vehicles are manufactured in multiple countries worldwide. The Smart marque of city cars are also produced by Daimler AG.

Automobiles