Amid the coronavirus spread, authorities at Daimler said it expect first-quarter earnings to plunge as customers shunned Mercedes-Benz showrooms just like every other carmaker.
In a statement by the automaker, preliminary quarterly earnings before interest and tax fell 78 percent to 617 million euros ($668 million).
Daimler’s forecast provides further evidence of the financial damage inflicted by the pandemic on the auto market, as global vehicle sales and production get pummeled by tight restrictions governments have had to impose on business activity and the movement of people to control the spread of the virus.
Earlier this month, luxury rival BMW reported a 21 percent drop in first-quarter vehicle sales and said it was expecting a further decline in global demand.
Ford Motor estimated a loss of about $2 billion for the first quarter, and had to raise $8 billion from corporate debt investors to shore up its cash reserves.
Overall passenger car sales tumbled by more than 50 percent in Europe’s major markets last month, with Italy — hit particularly hard by the pandemic — reporting the biggest drop, 85 percent.
Germany, Europe’s largest economy, has begun to ease some restrictions, allowing automakers to restart production.
Mercedes, which had suspended most of its production in Europe, said it was ramping up engine output at its factory in Bad Cannstatt, near Stuttgart, as it gradually reopens European plants using lessons learned from resuming production at its assembly sites in China.
MIKE OCHONMA
