Facts & figures

Report profile

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In this Sustainability Report, the Mercedes-Benz Group takes stock of the significant effects of its corporate activities in 2022 and presents its current target programme. This report is available online and as a PDF document. Special features of the online report include: a search function, a detailed GRI index, linked to the relevant places in the report, SASB and TCFD reports for download, a glossary of technical terms and a key indicator tool. With this key indicator tool, readers can compile tables according to their respective information needs. In both the online and PDF versions, a wide range of content is directly linked to the Annual Report 2022.

The PDF version of the report summarises all content in one document. Required topics and information can be accessed directly by chapter. The PDF file also contains numerous links to additional online information.

Corporate structure

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Mercedes-Benz Group AG is the parent company of the Mercedes-Benz Group and has its headquarters in Stuttgart. Daimler AG was renamed Mercedes-Benz Group AG with effect from 1 February 2022. In addition to Mercedes-Benz Group AG, the Mercedes-Benz Group includes all subsidiaries over which Mercedes-Benz Group AG can directly or indirectly exercise a controlling influence. Detailed information can be found in the list of shareholdings pursuant to § 313 of the German Commercial Code (HGB) in the Annual Report 2022, Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements. In close cooperation with Mercedes-Benz AG as the operating business entity, Mercedes-Benz Group AG decides on the strategy of the Group, exercises the management of the Group and, as Group parent company, ensures the regulatory, legal and compliance functions throughout the Group.

With the entry in the Commercial Register on 9 December 2021, the spin-off and hive-down of the Daimler commercial vehicle business was completed and the Daimler commercial vehicle business was deconsolidated. As a result, the structure of the Group changed: the operating activities of the Mercedes-Benz Group are managed by the Mercedes-Benz Cars, Mercedes-Benz Vans and Mercedes-Benz Mobility divisions.

The Mercedes-Benz Group sells vehicles and services in almost every country in the world and has over 30 production facilities in Europe, North and Latin America, Asia and Africa. The Group is continuously developing the global production network on these four continents, aligning its global production network to manufacture the repositioned product portfolio with a focus on electric vehicles in the luxury segment. At the same time, the global battery production network is being set up on three continents.

Mercedes-Benz AG is responsible for the Mercedes-Benz Cars and Mercedes-Benz Vans divisions with its brands Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-AMG, Mercedes-Maybach, Mercedes-EQ and Mercedes me. Mercedes-Benz Mobility AG encompasses financing, leasing and insurance services that are closely linked to mobility services such as fleet management, rental services and holdings in on-demand mobility services.

As in the financial reporting, the information in this Sustainability Report relates to the entire Mercedes-Benz Group and its segments. All production-relevant majority holdings of the company are fully included in the calculation at 100%.

The reporting period corresponds to the financial year of the Mercedes-Benz Group, which runs from 1 January to 31 December. It also corresponds to the period covered by the Annual Report.

GRI standards

In 2006, the Mercedes-Benz Group (then Daimler) joined the multi-stakeholder network of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), where it was initially active as an Organisational Stakeholder, followed by membership in the Gold Community and currently as a member of the GRI Community. The Mercedes-Benz Group does its reporting in accordance with the GRI standards for the period from 1 January to 31 December.

What has changed in this report?

This report is based on the sustainable business strategy of the Mercedes-Benz Group. It is divided into "Foreword", the chapters "Governance", "Environment" and "Social", and the section "Facts & Figures".

External developments and trends in the area of sustainability are brought into context with internal strategies and measures for the areas of “Governance”, “Environment” and “Social”.

This is followed by a detailed presentation of objectives, due diligence approach, measures and achievements in the year 2022. The report was prepared in accordance with the relevant standards. To give readers a quicker overview, the content structure is classified in accordance with the ESG thematic fields. These were assigned the six fields of action and the three enabler topics of the Mercedes-Benz Group, which as cross-cutting topics can also have an effect on the fields of action. The fields of action include: “Climate protection & air quality”, “Resource conservation”, “Sustainable urban mobility”, “Traffic safety”, “Data responsibility” and “Human rights”. The enabler topics are: “Integrity”, “People” and “Partnerships”. The overall management of the sustainability activities of the Mercedes-Benz Group is described in the section “Sustainable corporate governance”. Based on the materiality analysis for 2022, the chapter “Sustainable corporate governance” for the first time presents the key topics differentiated with the respective sub-topics. In addition to the strategic fields of action and enablers, the company presents its measures in the area of “social engagement” in another separate chapter.

Due to the spin-off and hive-down of the Daimler commercial vehicle business as an independent company in December 2021, the values for the financial years 2021 and 2022 are not comparable with those of previous years. Therefore, this report only shows the key figures of the past two years in the key figure tables. If the company calculates specific values for the individual divisions, more reporting periods may be presented.

Reporting principles

The Mercedes-Benz Group acknowledges its responsibility for the content of the Sustainability Report 2022. The Board of Management of the company has tasked the Disclosure Committee, which is also responsible for the financial reporting, with overseeing the compilation of the information in the Sustainability Report 2022 to the best of its knowledge and belief and free from material errors or omissions – in consideration of the nature of the business activity, the relevant information process, the nature of the information and the measurement, calculation or estimation methods used. To ensure the completeness of the information, corresponding omission statements in accordance with the GRI requirements were written wherever the available data may have been insufficient.

In order to determine which sustainability topics are particularly relevant for the Mercedes-Benz Group and its stakeholders, the company performed a comprehensive materiality analysis in 2022.

In the opinion of the company, the information presented on this basis is balanced, appropriate and complete in relation to the key topics. Facts which are considered relevant in accordance with the legal definition of materiality are part of the Non-Financial Declaration for 2022.

Certified according to ISAE 3000

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The company has engaged KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft auditing firm to perform a limited assurance engagement on the Mercedes-Benz Group Sustainability Report. The audit was based on the “International Standard on Assurance Engagements 3000: Assurance Engagements Other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information” (ISAE 3000). This standard is published by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB). The focus of the audit was at the corporate level. In addition, random samples were audited at individual factories. The following information was assessed:

• Information on CO₂ emissions (Scope 1, Scope 2 and selected Scope 3) in the following tables and graphs:
  • "CO₂ emissions from energy consumption"
  • "Scope 1, 2 and selected Scope 3 CO₂ emissions in tonnes per vehicle Mercedes-Benz Cars 2022"
  • "Scope 1, 2 and selected Scope 3 CO₂ emissions in tonnes per vehicle Mercedes-Benz Vans 2022"
  • "Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions worldwide Mercedes-Benz Cars"
  • "Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions worldwide Mercedes-Benz Vans",

• information on energy consumption in the table "Energy consumption",

• information on water withdrawal in the table „Water withdrawal“,

• information on quantities of waste in the table "Waste by waste category",

• information in the Annex "Calculation and documentation of CO₂ emissions",

• information on the proportion of suppliers who have signed the "Ambition Letter" in the chapter "Climate protection in the supply chain > effectiveness and results",

• information on the frequency of accidents at production sites in the table "accident frequency", and

• information on the EU taxonomy in the tables of the chapter "EU taxonomy".

In accordance with Sections 315b and 315c of the German Commercial Code (HGB), the Mercedes-Benz Group reports on non-financial matters in its combined management report, which was audited with reasonable assurance by KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft as part of the audit of the company’s financial statements. Exceptions are the data on EU taxonomy, accident indicators and the "ambition letter" as well as the key figures for CO₂ emissions in production (Scope 1 and 2), which were audited in order to obtain limited assurance as part of a separate assurance engagement of the sustainability report.

This Sustainability Report also includes the content audited in the Non-Financial Declaration. The relevant passages in this Sustainability Report are marked in blue font colour in the continuous text. Audited graphs and tables are also referenced accordingly via footnotes. Unless marked with footnotes, graphs and tables have not undergone external audit, regardless of the colors used. Unless explicitly noted, this content was audited with reasonable assurance.

Upon completion of the examination, the company received an audit opinion. It documents the objective, purpose and basis of the audit, the work performed and the conclusions reached. The internal reporting on this is conducted by the Group Sustainability Board.

Non-Financial Declaration (NFD)

In accordance with Sections 315b and 315c of the German Commercial Code (HGB), the Mercedes-Benz Group reports on non-financial matters in its combined management report, which was audited with reasonable assurance by KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft as part of the audit of the company’s financial statements. Exceptions are the data on EU taxonomy, accident indicators and the "ambition letter" as well as the key figures for CO₂ emissions in production (Scope 1 and 2), which were audited in order to obtain limited assurance as part of a separate assurance engagement of the sustainability report.

Progress report UN Global Compact

The Mercedes-Benz Group is committed to the ten principles of the UN Global Compact. The Mercedes-Benz Group (Daimler at that time) was one of the first signatories of the UN Global Compact and is involved in thematic and regional working groups and initiatives of the UN Global Compact. In the reporting year, these included the so-called Action Platforms “Reporting on the SDGs” and “Decent Work in Global Supply Chains” as well as the German Global Compact Network. This sustainability report is an essential basis for complying with the new reporting obligation for the reporting year 2022. Therefore, the company continues to report on its initiatives in the areas of human rights, labour standards and workers’ rights, environmental protection and anti-corruption in this report. In July 2022, the Mercedes-Benz Group published the Sustainability Report 2021 together with the document “Realising the Blueprint: Corporate Action Plan” as the official communication on progress to the UN Global Compact. The Mercedes-Benz Group plans to present the next communication on progress in April 2023.

Reporting process and quality assurance

The Mercedes-Benz Group reviews its goals, measures and fields of action in an internal process and carries out detailed benchmark analyses. This year, for the first time, the company’s Board of Management tasked the Disclosure Committee, which is also responsible for the financial reporting, with overseeing the compilation of the information in the Sustainability Report 2022 to the best of its knowledge and belief and free from material error or omission – taking into account the nature of the business activity, the relevant information process, the nature of the information and the measurement, calculation or estimation methods used.

Scope of reporting and data acquisition methods

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Economic data

The information about economic relationships presented in the Sustainability Report 2022 is based on data from the Mercedes-Benz Group Annual Report 2022. The financial statements of the Mercedes-Benz Group and the combined management report for Mercedes-Benz Group AG and the Group for 2022 were audited by KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft, which has issued an unqualified audit opinion.

Data on people

The facts and figures in the “People” chapter correspond to those in the Mercedes-Benz Group Annual Report 2022. The reporting on human resources data is based mainly on the HR eData and HR ePARS personnel planning and reporting systems. The data of all consolidated companies of the corporation worldwide flow into both systems. The basis is provided by the respective local HR systems. For Germany, this is “ePeople”. In the texts and graphics, the Mercedes-Benz Group states whether information relates to the entire company or only to subdivisions.

Data collection on operational environmental protection

Included are all the production locations in which the Mercedes-Benz Group is a majority shareholder, as well as the German and European locations of the logistics, service and sales units. The locations of Mercedes-Benz Mobility AG are not taken into account. For this reason, the timelines may differ from those of previously published data. New locations are taken into account from the date of series production. The environmental data for 2022 refer to a total of 40 manufacturing sites as well as other areas from research and development, logistics and sales.

Specific environmental and energy data

Resource consumption and emissions are largely dependent on production volume. Therefore, the company calculates specific values for the individual divisions. For this purpose, the number of vehicles of the segment manufactured in the consolidated plants is referenced to the corresponding data of the production plants. The company collects the specific values from the Cars and Vans divisions in accordance with the business segment classification valid since 2006. Individual strings of numbers also include data from previous years; this is then shown accordingly. The specific data gained in this way can only represent general benchmarks, because they do not consider the different ways in which the vertical integration of production has developed, the diversity of products or the special features of the production network, which in some cases spans divisions.

Editorial notes

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In the context of gender-neutral language, the Mercedes-Benz Group prefers to use gender-neutral terms in the report, as well as both the feminine and masculine forms in various places. Composites are an exception in the interest of better readability. However, this explicitly refers to all genders.

The report is available in German and English. In case of discrepancies between the versions, the German document shall prevail.

EU Taxonomy

The EU taxonomy regulation and the adopted delegated acts along with the supplementary interpretation documents of the European Commission contain formulations and terms that are still subject to considerable uncertainties and for which clarifications have not yet been published in all cases. Among others, this refers to the classification of economic activities, interpretation of do-no-significant-harm-criteria and to the assessment of the economic substance of financial investments. Due to the immanent risk that uncertain legal terms could be differently interpreted, uncertainty is attached to the legal certainty of the interpretation.

Statements regarding electricity and fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions

The consumption was determined on the basis of the regulation 2017/1151/EU. Further information on official fuel consumption and on the official specific CO₂ emissions of new cars can be taken from “Leitfaden über den Kraftstoffverbrauch, die CO₂-Emissionen und den Stromverbrauch neuer Personenkraftwagen”.

The Mercedes-Benz Group published its last Sustainability Report on 21 March 2022. The report for the reporting year 2022 will be published on 14 March 2023 under the title “Mercedes-Benz Group Sustainability Report 2022”. The next report is planned for March/April 2024.

Forward-looking statements

This document contains forward-looking statements that reflect our current views about future events. The words “anticipate”, “assume”, “believe”, “estimate”, “expect”, “intend”, “may”, “can”, “could”, “plan”, “project”, “should” and similar expressions are used to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to many risks and uncertainties, including an adverse development of global economic conditions, in particular a decline of demand in our most important markets; a deterioration of our refinancing possibilities on the credit and financial markets; events of force majeure including natural disasters, pandemics, acts of terrorism, political unrest, armed conflicts, industrial accidents and their effects on our sales, purchasing, production or financial services activities; changes in currency exchange rates, customs and foreign trade provisions; a shift in consumer preferences towards smaller, lower-margin vehicles; a possible lack of acceptance of our products or services which limits our ability to achieve prices and adequately utilize our production capacities; price increases for fuel, raw materials or energy; disruption of production due to shortages of materials or energy, labour strikes or supplier insolvencies; a decline in resale prices of used vehicles; the effective implementation of cost-reduction and efficiency-optimization measures; the business outlook for companies in which we hold a significant equity interest; the successful implementation of strategic cooperation and joint ventures; changes in laws, regulations and government policies, particularly those relating to vehicle emissions, fuel consumption and safety; the resolution of pending governmental investigations or of investigations requested by governments and the outcome of pending or threatened future legal proceedings; and other risks and uncertainties, some of which are described in the “Risk and Opportunity Report” of Mercedes-Benz Group’s Annual Report. If any of these risks and uncertainties materializes or if the assumptions underlying any of our forward-looking statements prove to be incorrect, the actual results may be materially different from those we express or imply by such statements. We do not intend or assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements since they are based solely on the circumstances at the date of publication.

Contact for the report

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Mirjam Bendak

Email: mirjam.bendak@mercedes-benz.com