BMW outsold Mercedes in traditional segments in Q1 2025

BMW sold more units in traditional premium segments than Mercedes in Q1 2025. By traditional segments, we mean the midsize, business, and luxury classes.

BMW sold 71,136 X3/X4 and 117,719 3 Series/4 Series in the midsize class, according to BMW Blog, which means 188,855 units in total. By comparison, Mercedes’ Q1 2025 financial report states 169,582 C-Class/GLC/GLC Coupe units were sold. Mercedes does not report C-Class and GLC/GLC Coupe sales separately but only cumulatively. In this case, the BMW advance is over 19,000 units (+11.3%).

According to the same BMW Blog source, BMW sold 62,866 X5/X6 and 71,301 5 Series in the business class in Q1 2025, or a total of 134,167 units. By comparison, Mercedes sold 111,651 E-Class/GLE/GLE Coupe units in the same period in 2025 according to the financial report published on May 7. Mercedes does not report separately sales of E-Class, GLE/GLE/GLE Coupe, but only together. This gives BMW a substantial lead of over 20,000 units (+19.3%).

The big surprise, however, is in the luxury class. Mercedes was the absolute leader in this segment for many years thanks to good sales of the S-Class. But in Q1 2025 sales of the S-Class fell dramatically and combined sales of the S-Class (including Maybach) and GLS fell 23% to 27,070 units. By comparison, BMW sold 13,489 7-Series/8-Series units (Mercedes does not have any more S-Class Coupe in its portfolio), and 13,673 BMW X7s, for a total of 27,162 units.

BMW also leads the compact segment with 157,802 BMW 1-Series/Series 2, X1/X2 units (51,237 1-Series/Series 1 and 106,565 X1/X2 units) compared to 124,032 units of the A-Class, B-Class, GLA, GLB, and their derivatives.