Facts & figures

Independent assurance practitioner’s report¹

To Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Stuttgart

We have performed a limited assurance engagement on selected sustainability disclosures in the Sustainability Report 2022 of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Stuttgart (hereinafter also short “Company”), for the period from January 1 to December 31, 2022.

This includes the following selected disclosures on sustainability (hereinafter the “Sustainability Disclosures”):

• Disclosures on CO₂ emissions (scope 1, scope 2 and selected scope 3) in the following tables and charts
  • “CO₂ emissions from energy consumption”
  • “Scope 1, 2 and selected Scope 3 CO₂ emissions in tons per vehicle, Mercedes-Benz Cars 2022”
  • “Scope 1, 2 and selected Scope 3 CO₂ emissions in tons per vehicle, Mercedes-Benz Vans 2022”
  • “Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, Mercedes-Benz Cars worldwide”
  • “Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, Mercedes-Benz Vans worldwide”,
• Disclosures on energy consumption in the table “Energy consumption”,
• Disclosures on water withdrawal in the table “Water withdrawal”,
• Disclosures on waste in the table “Waste by category”,
• Disclosures in the appendix “Calculation and documentation of CO₂ emissions”,
• Disclosures on the share of suppliers who have signed the “Ambition Letter” in the chapter “Climate protection in the supply chain > Effectiveness and results”,
• Disclosure on accident frequency at production sites in the table “Accident frequency” as well as
• Disclosures regarding the EU taxonomy in the tables of the chapter “EU taxonomy”.

These contents, on which we performed our limited assurance engagement, are indicated by footnotes in the Sustainability Report 2022.

Note on a further matter

As part of the year-end audit, we were engaged to perform a reasonable assurance for the combined non-financial declaration of the company and the group, contained in the combined management report, to comply with Sections 289b to 289e and 315b to 315c HGB (hereinafter referred to as “non-financial declaration 2022”) for the financial year from January 1 to December 31, 2022. Regarding the nature, scope, and results of this audit, we refer to our auditor’s report on the audit of the consolidated financial statements and the combined management report of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Stuttgart, dated March 13, 2023. The contents, audited as part of the audit of the non-financial declaration 2022, are indicated by blue font color in the Sustainability Report 2022; audited graphics and tables are marked by respective footnotes. Unless marked with footnotes, graphs and tables were not audited, regardless of the font colors used.

Responsibilities of Management

Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG is responsible for the preparation of the Sustainability Report and the therein contained Sustainability Disclosures in accordance with the therein stated Reporting Criteria and Article 8 of REGULATION (EU) 2020/852 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 18 June 2020 on establishing a framework to facilitate sustainable investment and amending Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 (hereinafter the “EU Taxonomy Regulation”) and the Delegated Acts adopted thereunder, as well as for making their own interpretation of the wording and terms contained in the EU Taxonomy Regulation and the Delegated Acts adopted thereunder as set out in section “EU taxonomy” of the Sustainability Report.

This responsibility includes the selection and application of appropriate non-financial reporting methods and making assumptions and estimates about individual non-financial disclosures of the Group that are reasonable in the circumstances. Furthermore, management is responsible for such internal control as they consider necessary to enable the preparation of the Sustainability Disclosures that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud (manipulation of the Sustainability Disclosures) or error.

The EU Taxonomy Regulation and the Delegated Acts issued thereunder contain wording and terms that are still subject to considerable interpretation uncertainties and for which clarifications have not yet been published in every case. Therefore, management has disclosed their interpretation of the EU Taxonomy Regulation and the Delegated Acts adopted thereunder in section “EU taxonomy” of the Sustainability Report. They are responsible for the defensibility of this interpretation. Due to the immanent risk that indeterminate legal terms may be interpreted differently, the legal conformity of the interpretation is subject to uncertainties.

Independence and Quality Assurance of the Assurance Practitioner’s firm

We have complied with the independence and quality assurance requirements set out in the national legal provisions and professional pronouncements, in particular the Professional Code for German Public Auditors and Chartered Accountants (in Germany) and the quality assurance standard of the German Institute of Public Auditors (Institut der Wirtschaftsprüfer, IDW) regarding quality assurance requirements in audit practice (IDW QS 1).

Responsibility of the Assurance Practitioner

Our responsibility is to express a conclusion with limited assurance on the Sustainability Disclosures described above based on our assurance engagement.

We conducted our assurance engagement in accordance with International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000 (Revised): “Assurance Engagements other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information” issued by the IAASB, in the form of a limited assurance engagement for the Sustainability Disclosures described above. This standard requires that we plan and perform the assurance engagement to obtain limited assurance about whether any matters have come to our attention that cause us to believe that the Company’s Sustainability Disclosures described above are not prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the Reporting Criteria and the EU Taxonomy Regulation and the Delegated Acts issued thereunder as well as the interpretation by management disclosed in section “EU taxonomy” of the Sustainability Report.

In a limited assurance engagement, the procedures performed are less extensive than in a reasonable assurance engagement, and accordingly, a substantially lower level of assurance is obtained. The selection of the assurance procedures is subject to the professional judgment of the assurance practitioner.

In the course of our assurance engagement we have, among other things, performed the following assurance procedures and other activities:

• A risk analysis, including a media search, to identify relevant sustainability aspects for Mercedes-Benz Group in the reporting period.
• Evaluation of the design and implementation of the systems and processes for the collection, processing, and control of the data on sustainability performance indicators, including the consolidation of the data.
• Inquiries of relevant employees at corporate level responsible for providing the data, carrying out internal control procedures and consolidating the data, including the accompanying explanatory notes.
• Examination of selected internal and external documents.
• Analytical evaluation of data and trends of quantitative information which are reported by selected sites to group level.
• Assessment of local data collection and reporting processes and reliability of reported data via sampling survey in Kecskemét, Düsseldorf and Untertürkheim.
• Evaluation of the overall presentation of the Sustainability Disclosures included in the scope of the audit.
• Reconciliation of disclosures with the corresponding information in the non-financial declaration 2022.

In determining the disclosures in accordance with Article 8 of the EU Taxonomy Regulation, management is required to interpret undefined legal terms. Due to the immanent risk that undefined legal terms may be interpreted differently, the legal conformity of their interpretation and, accordingly, our assurance engagement thereon are subject to uncertainties.

Assurance Opinion

Based on the assurance procedures performed and the evidence obtained, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the following selected Sustainability Disclosures

• Disclosures on CO₂ emissions (scope 1, scope 2 and selected scope 3) in the following tables and charts
  • “CO₂ emissions from energy consumption”
  • “Scope 1, 2 and selected Scope 3 CO₂ emissions in tons per vehicle, Mercedes-Benz Cars 2022”
  • “Scope 1, 2 and selected Scope 3 CO₂ emissions in tons per vehicle, Mercedes-Benz Vans 2022”
  • “Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, Mercedes-Benz Cars worldwide”
  • “Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, Mercedes-Benz Vans worldwide”,
• Disclosures on energy consumption in the table “Energy consumption”,
• Disclosures on water withdrawal in the table “Water withdrawal”,
• Disclosures on waste in the table “Waste by category”,
• Disclosures in the appendix “Calculation and documentation of CO₂ emissions”,
• Disclosures on the share of suppliers who have signed the “Ambition Letter” in the chapter “Climate protection in the supply chain > Effectiveness and results”,
• Disclosure on accident frequency at production sites in the table “Accident frequency” as well as
• Disclosures regarding the EU taxonomy in the tables of the chapter “EU taxonomy”

of Mercedes-Benz Group AG for the period from January 1 to December 31, 2022 are not prepared in all material respects, in accordance with the Reporting Criteria stated in the Sustainability Report 2022 of Mercedes-Benz Group AG and the EU Taxonomy Regulation and the Delegated Acts issued thereunder as well as the interpretation by management as disclosed in section “EU taxonomy” of the Sustainability Report.

Restriction of Use

This assurance report is solely addressed to Mercedes-Benz Group AG for exclusive usage.

Our assignment for Mercedes-Benz Group AG and professional liability is governed by the General Engagement Terms for Wirtschaftsprüfer (German Public Auditors) and Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaften (German Public Audit Firms) (Allgemeine Auftragsbedingungen für Wirtschaftsprüfer und Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaften) in the version dated January 1, 2017 (https://www.kpmg.de/bescheinigungen/lib/aab_english.pdf). By reading and using the information contained in this assurance report, each recipient confirms to have taken note of the terms and conditions stipulated in the General Engagement Terms (including the liability limitations to EUR 4 Mio for negligence specified in item No. 9 included therein) and acknowledges their validity in relation to us.

Stuttgart, March 13, 2023

KPMG AG
Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft

[Original German version signed by:]

1 Our engagement applied to the German version of the Sustainability Report 2022. This text is a translation of the independent assurance practioner’s report issued in German language, whereas the German text is authoritative.