Mercedes-Benz and the Future of Internal Combustion Engines

Germany’s most valuable auto maker retains its luxury reputation and hallowed tradition of knowledge in mechanical engineering, but lacks the ability to adapt to fundamental technology shifts.

Mercedes-Benz emblem on a vehicle in 2022. Photo by Lens Access. Source.

Mercedes-Benz Group is the most valuable German automobile manufacturer as of August 2026, with a market capitalization of around €44 billion (MBG.DE).¹ The company primarily makes high-end and luxury vehicles at relatively large scale: in 2025, it sold 2.16 million vehicles across the world and generated €132 billion of revenue, primarily across Europe, the United States, and China.² For comparison, the world’s top auto maker by production volume is Toyota, which made over 11 million vehicles in 2025, while Tesla made 1.6 million cars for the year. Mercedes-Benz currently has around 164,000 employees and is among the largest private employers in Germany.³ For most of its history, Mercedes-Benz formed part of a larger company with Daimler, a truck manufacturer, and the company was known as Daimler-Benz. In 2019, however, Daimler was spun off to form an independent company, Daimler Trucks, although Mercedes-Benz retains a 30% stake.⁴ The company also owns the luxury vehicle marque Maybach. Mercedes-Benz has a reputation for elite German engineering and is both a jewel and bellwether of the German economy, itself the heart of Europe’s $23 trillion economy: Mercedes-Benz is the world’s first and oldest automobile company, tracing its origins back to 1883 when German engineer Carl Benz founded the first-ever auto maker Benz & Cie.⁵