In South Korea’s imported car market, German luxury brand Mercedes-Benz was the top brand in terms of sales for eight years from 2015 to 2022. That, however, changed last year when rival BMW took over the top spot.

Mathias Vaitl, CEO and president of Mercedes-Benz Korea, however, seemed unfazed over such a development. On the contrary, Vaitl said his company’s core strategy in the market isn’t even about selling the biggest number of cars here.

“Actually, our strategy is not necessarily about being No. 1 with Mercedes-Benz in the market. It’s, of course, accepted if we are No. 1, but it’s not our strategy that we fight for No. 1 here,” Vaitl said during a group media interview held at his office in Seoul on Wednesday.

It marked his first media interview since taking the helm of Mercedes-Benz’s South Korean operations in September of last year. “We want to offer a great brand experience with Mercedes-Benz and focus on our own strategy,” he said.

According to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors
Association, Mercedes-Benz ranked second in terms of newly registered imported cars in the market last year, with 76,697 units registered in 2023. It yielded the top spot to BMW, with a slightly higher number of 77,395 registered units, for the first time in eight years.

BMW has continued its lead in the market in the first two months of 2024.

Still, Vaitl said his company keeps its focus on customers instead of sales figures.

“We focus on our customers, (asking ourselves) how can we uplift their brand experience, how can we deliver them great products, and how can we satisfy and excite them.”

Vaitl noted probable factors in Mercedes-Benz lagging behind BMW in sales as of late. He pointed out that the company in 2023 was in the last year for its previous W213 E-Class sedan generation introduced in 2017.

Geopolitical tensions surrounding the Middle East’s Red Sea and Suez Canal disrupting the company’s shipments from Europe to Asia have been a big factor as well, he said.

“We have thousands of customers
waiting for their cars. They are excited, and they are all looking forward, therefore we also sincerely apologize (for the shipment delay),” the CEO said.

He added, “We are simply waiting that the cars are coming in and that we can serve our customers.” Vaitl said Mercedes-Benz Korea was in “intense discussions” on the matter with headquarters and also in consultations with the German government to better deal with the situation.

On recent industry projections suggesting a slowdown in the growth of the electric vehicle (EV) market and global automakers subsequently reassessing their EV strategy, Vaitl suggested his company was also making adjustments. Mercedes-Benz recently shelved its previous plan to sell only EV models after 2030.

The CEO said the automaker’s sales vision on xEV (plug-in hybrids and EVs) models has also changed.

“Our chairman once announced that by 2025, we will see a 50 percent share on xEVs. This will take longer, and we assume that this will come at the end of the decade,” he noted.

Vaitl stressed company’s EV business strategy will follow customer demand. In South Korea in particular, he said Mercedes-Benz wants to be well prepared to the fast changes in market trends.

“In Korea, you need to be very agile (to market trends). Maybe it goes a little bit like this, but one day its changing rapidly.”

In terms of EV charging, Mercedes-Benz plans to start investing in building its own charging network in South Korea this year. The CEO said the company is emphasizing high-performance charging capacity as its key differentiator.

“High performance charging is where we are also committed, and on top of that, we are also looking even into AC and DC charging at the moment,” Vaitl said but stopped short of going into further details of the investment plan.

Having joined Mercedes-Benz in 2005, Vaitl has extensive professional background in areas of retail, product management and digital services. Before coming to Seoul, he previously headed the company’s digital services and e-commerce divisions
at the company’s headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany.

On his experience in the country, Vaitl said he sees South Korea as a “fascinating country and a fascinating business environment open for new technologies.”

Source: Yonhap News Agency