Mercedes-Benz U.S. CEO Adam Chamberlain said Tuesday that 2026 is shaping up to be a more difficult year than expected.
“If you look at the market for the first few months of this year, the market environment is definitely a little bit tougher than we expected,” Chamberlain told CNBC from the company’s manufacturing facility in Vance, Alabama. “I think there are a lot of distractions, whether it’s geopolitics or whatever.”
Car buyers are facing rising auto loan rates and questions about the strength of the economy that are delaying new car purchases.
But Chamberlain said the company has yet to see consumers delay buying a new Mercedes because of gas prices, even though gas prices are now more than $4 a gallon in the United States.
“I think it’s manageable in the short term,” Chamberlain said. “But I think when you get closer to $5 (per gallon) over a 90-, 100- or 120-day period, it starts to become a bigger distraction.”
Mercedes is targeting a 28% increase in U.S. car sales and is investing $4 billion in its Alabama plant through 2030 to expand production.
Mercedes’ U.S. retail sales last year were 303,200 vehicles, the automaker said. The company aims to increase annual retail sales in the US to 400,000 units by 2030.
Most of the cars Mercedes sells in the U.S. are made overseas, and the company will be exposed to higher costs in a year from President Donald Trump’s new tariffs on auto imports.
Although these cost increases are hurting Mercedes’ profits, Chamberlain said the tariffs are not slowing sales.
“Since the tariffs went into effect, prices have increased only 1.3%, well below the rate of inflation,” he said on Tuesday.
In an effort to boost sales, Mercedes also announced new versions of its popular GLS and GLE models on Tuesday, including the new GLE 53 Hybrid, which will be built in Alabama.
