Mercedes-Benz has seen the sale of its electric vehicles (EVs) increase significantly in the U.S. this year. However, a new report shows that dealers have had difficulty keeping up with inventory levels for the automaker’s EQ lineup, with sales times for the EVs exceeding the luxury segment average.
In the third quarter, Mercedes sold 10,423 EVs in the U.S., marking a 284-percent increase year over year. Despite the gradual increase in EV sales, the German automaker’s EVs are sitting on dealership lots and are not being sold off as quickly as other vehicles.
According to a report from Automotive News citing Edmunds data, Mercedes-Benz battery-electric EQ models took an average of 82 days to sell at dealerships in September. Comparatively, vehicles across the overall luxury segment averaged 57 days, while BMW vehicles took around 38 days to sell.
In various anonymous interviews with Automotive News, Mercedes dealers pointed to the brand’s lack of effort in responding to growing EV competition with sales programs and to the products themselves as the reasons for heightened inventory levels. One person who runs a Mercedes store said he currently has over six months’ worth of EVs and only a 50-day supply of the company’s gas cars.
“The EVs are coming whether or not you asked for them or earned them,” the retail store operator said. “There is too much of a price premium — especially at the top end of the EQ lineup — and almost no [lease] support.”
He added that the EQ models didn’t have the same “lust factor” as some of the automaker’s classic gas cars, including the S-Class sedan and the AMG-GT coupe.
“Our cars need to be ‘want’ cars,” he said. “The S-Class has maintained good loyalty because it’s aspirational. An EQS is not something that most people aspire to own.”
Credit: Automotive News
A Mercedes spokesperson declined to comment on internal discussions with its retailers.
CEO of Mercedes-Benz U.S., Dimitris Psillakis, blamed slow sales on a lack of product variety and on the EV segment being so new. Additionally, he pointed to issues in the supply chain as preventing variety at dealerships and keeping some more affordable models, such as the EQB compact EV, off of their lots.
“We are with a new lineup in a new world,” Psillakis said. “There is no past, there is no experience. We still face challenges around our product lines and have some restrictions coming from suppliers. We don’t always get the volume we want when we want it.”
Psillakis also said that Mercedes didn’t have any supply of the affordable EQB at the beginning of the year. Although this has changed, he says that it still takes time for the EV to reach dealers.
The Mercedes-Benz EV lineup and pricing structure is as follows, according to the automaker’s website:
- EQB (SUV); starts at $52,750
- EQE (sedan); starts at $74,900
- EQE (SUV); starts at $77,900
- EQS (sedan); starts at $104,400
- EQS (SUV); starts at $104,400
Other automakers have also faced difficulty in moving EVs alongside inflation and rising interest rates, and especially in the luxury segment.
The average EV overall sold in 36 days near the beginning of this year, according to a Cloud Theory report cited by Automotive News. By September, the report showed that this number had jumped to 80 days.
The problem is even worse for Mercedes and in the luxury segment overall. The average luxury EV sales time across brands increased by 73 percent in September compared to the same month last year, according to the aforementioned Edmunds data. For Mercedes dealers, the rate increased by 110 percent year over year.
“The ship of early adopters — willing to put a reservation down on virtually any EV announced — has sailed,” says Edmunds Insights Director Ivan Drury.
The report comes after Mercedes delayed its internal goals for electrification earlier this year, now aiming to reach a milestone of half of its auto sales being plug-in hybrids or fully electric by 2026 instead of a year prior. It also comes after Mercedes joined other automakers in adopting Tesla’s charging hardware, dubbed the North American Charging Standard (NACS).
Mercedes-Benz to launch Level 3 automated driving tech in the US by Q4
What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send your tips to us at tips@teslarati.com.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s AI Grok Bot can now handle banking while your Tesla FSD handles the road
Elon Musk says Grok Bot can manage your finances through linked bank and investment accounts.
Grok Bot now wants access to your wallet, with SpaceXAI rolling out a new Finance integration for its agent platform that lets users link bank, credit card and investment accounts thereby letting their Bots help manage spending, investments and more. Elon Musk amplified the announcement on X with a short endorsement, “Grok Bot can manage your finances.”
The feature builds on two earlier steps. In early September, Grok gained the ability to answer questions about spending, savings, investments and cash flow using accounts connected through Plaid, starting with users in the U.S. Before that, on August 28, SpaceXAI let Grok Bot buy things online through Link, with users approving every spend request and the Bot receiving a single use card for each payment.
Musk has already shown how far he wants users to push it. In late August, when Tesla investor account Teslaconomics said he was weighing whether to give Grok Bot access to his bank accounts, Musk replied, “Try it out. If Grok Bot messes up, we will make you whole.” That promise goes beyond SpaceXAI’s consumer terms, which make users responsible for what their agents do and generally cap the company’s liability at the greater of fees paid or $100. SpaceXAI’s own documentation recommends requiring approval for purchases and financial transfers.
For Tesla owners, the update lands five days after Tesla brought Grok Bot into its vehicles, letting drivers hand off errands by voice while FSD (Supervised) handles the road. Bot access inside the car is currently limited to SuperGrok Heavy subscribers, though Connectors are open to anyone signed into Grok. With Finance linked, a driver could ask for a spending summary or a check on upcoming bills during the commute.
Grok’s role in the car has grown quickly since Tesla’s Summer Update let it control cabin features by voice. We have been using Grok Bot in our own Tesla for several weeks, and here’s how our latest test went.
Elon Musk
SpaceX just got the green light Starship has waited years for
The FAA has cleared Starship Flight 14, setting up SpaceX’s first orbital attempt on Monday.
SpaceX has cleared the last regulatory hurdle standing between Starship and its first trip to orbit. The Federal Aviation Administration issued the launch license for Starship Flight 14 late Saturday, keeping the mission on track for liftoff Monday, September 28, from Pad 2 at Starbase, Texas.
The 75 minute launch window opens at 7:15 a.m. Central, and Boca Chica Beach closures are also scheduled for September 29 and 30 as backup dates. This will be Starship’s first revenue generating mission.
The license was the missing piece after SpaceX completed a full wet dress rehearsal with Booster 21 and Ship 41 on September 24. At the time, the company said the flight remained on track pending regulatory approval. Because Flight 14 flies an orbital profile, the FAA had to sign off on a modified license that met its safety, payload and financial responsibility requirements.
Observers combing through the new FAA paperwork also noticed that lightning no longer appears among Starship’s listed launch hazards. If that holds, it matters more for where Starship is headed than for Monday’s attempt. Florida and Louisiana, home to LC-39A and the planned Starbase Louisiana site, see some of the most frequent lightning in the United States.
SpaceX tells the FCC that Starship Flight 14 is going to orbit
Flight 14 is the mission SpaceX has been building toward for months. Ship 41 will carry 26 Starlink V3 satellites, the first operational V3 units to be deployed, and attempt roughly six orbits at about 275 kilometers over a flight lasting just under 10 hours. SpaceX says the ship will only perform its orbital insertion burn after flight controllers confirm enough hardware redundancy remains for the deorbit burn at the end of the mission. Ship 41 is targeting a splashdown in the Pacific west of Chile, while Super Heavy will return to the Gulf of Mexico.
The date carries some symbolism as well. A Monday launch would come 10 years and one day after Elon Musk first presented the Interplanetary Transport System, the design that became Starship, at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico.
SpaceX has not announced what comes next, but air traffic planning slides reported this week, list Flight 15 no earlier than October 19 and a first Starship launch from LC-39A in Florida no earlier than October 30. Both dates depend on how Monday goes.
News
SpaceX completes another secret Pentagon launch, adding to suspected Starshield buildout
SpaceX launched the classified USSF-385 mission from Vandenberg, landing its booster on a tenth flight.
SpaceX launched another classified mission for the U.S. Space Force from California early Saturday morning, and the Falcon 9 booster that carried it landed on a drone ship in the Pacific for the tenth time. The USSF-385 mission lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base at 7:00 a.m. PT.
Booster B1100 touched down on Of Course I Still Love You roughly eight and a half minutes after liftoff. It was the booster’s tenth flight and tenth successful landing, following the NROL-95 national security mission and eight Starlink launches. Its previous flight, a Starlink Group 15 mission on August 22, came just 35 days earlier. SpaceX ended its livestream shortly after the landing, which is standard for classified payloads, and neither the company nor the Space Force has said what the rocket carried.
Watch Falcon 9 launch the USSF-385 mission from pad 4E in California https://t.co/CAdbx85Ydy
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 26, 2026
USSF-385 is the fourth Space Force launch from the same Vandenberg pad in roughly six weeks, following USSF-366 on August 15, USSF-153 on September 10, and USSF-259 on September 17. When SpaceX flew USSF-366 in August, independent trackers noted that the rocket’s stage drop zones matched SpaceX’s Starlink Group 15 missions, pointing to Starshield, the government version of the Starlink satellite bus. The Space Force later cataloged 23 satellites after both USSF-366 and USSF-153, while USSF-259 placed 17 satellites into a different orbital plane, per KeepTrack. Launch databases describe USSF-385 the same way, though the payload remains officially unidentified.
The cadence lines up with the contracts, because in July, the Space Force awarded SpaceX $1.6 billion in task orders for 18 Falcon 9 missions from Vandenberg through the end of 2027. SpaceX also holds contracts to build pieces of that same network, which pushed its Pentagon contract total for 2026 past $8 billion.
Saturday’s flight was also the sixth and final Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg in September, according to Spaceflight Now, while only one Falcon 9 flew from the East Coast this month as SpaceX shifts its Florida infrastructure toward Starship. Launch trackers list it as SpaceX’s 112th mission of 2026 and the 108th Falcon 9 flight of the year, with SLC-4E turned around about six and a half days after its previous launch.
The West Coast pad will not stay quiet for long, considering SpaceX has another Starlink mission scheduled from SLC-4E on September 30. Meanwhile, in Texas, the company is two days away from Starship Flight 14, which is targeting Monday at 7:15 a.m. CT for the vehicle’s first attempt to reach orbit.
Elon Musk’s AI Grok Bot can now handle banking while your Tesla FSD handles the road
SpaceX just got the green light Starship has waited years for
