Daimler said it expects first-quarter earnings to plunge as customers shunned Mercedes-Benz showrooms amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Preliminary quarterly earnings before interest and tax fell 78 percent to 617 million euros ($664 million), the automaker said in a statement on Thursday. Adjusted EBIT declined by 70 percent to 719 million euros ($774 million.)
Preliminary adjusted EBIT for Mercedes-Benz cars and vans fell more than 56 percent to 603 million euros ($649 million).
Daimler said it expects total unit sales and revenue for 2020 to be lower compared with last year.
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 raised $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 on Wednesday 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.
Daimler will publish full quarterly results on April 29.
