According to the self-media “Car Pixel”, Mercedes-Benz China has initiated a large-scale layoff, confirming previous rumors.
The news states that on February 26, Mercedes-Benz China held meetings with some employees and commenced the layoff on the same day, with a reduction rate of about 15%. This round of layoffs mainly involves the sales and automotive finance systems, with the main companies being Mercedes-Benz (China) Auto Sales Co., Ltd. and Mercedes-Benz Auto Finance Co., Ltd., while the research and development system has not been affected yet.
Apart from receiving a compensation of N+9, the laid-off employees will also receive additional salary for the months of March and April if they do not join a new company within the next two months. This indicates that the highest compensation provided by Mercedes-Benz China is equivalent to N+11, far exceeding the N+6 of Volkswagen China and N+3 of Tesla last year.
A source close to Mercedes-Benz China revealed that this layoff is considered a “general layoff” as almost every department of the sales and finance companies participated. A large proportion of the laid-off employees were those with “non-fixed-term” labor contracts.
Reportedly, the day before the layoff announcement, Mercedes-Benz China held a staff meeting on February 25, where Ola Källenius, the Chairman of the Board of Daimler AG, personally presided over the meeting. An employee who attended the meeting mentioned that although there was no explicit mention of layoffs, most employees were mentally prepared for the upcoming changes.
On February 20, Mercedes-Benz released its financial report for the fiscal year 2024, showing a net profit of 10.4 billion euros (approximately 79.4 billion yuan), a 28% year-on-year decrease. Mercedes-Benz attributes the decline in performance mainly to the decrease in sales, particularly in the Chinese market, which led to a 3% global sales decline compared to the previous year.
To alleviate the weak sales in China, Mercedes-Benz announced a series of personnel changes on December 11, 2024. An employee of Mercedes-Benz China mentioned that the Research and Development Center (RDC) in China is almost the only institution with a recruitment plan of any significant scale this year. However, for employees in the sales system, until Mercedes-Benz regains competitiveness, they will continue to worry about further “cost reduction and efficiency improvement”.
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This information was originally reported by “大紀元” on February 27, 2025.