Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the annual results conference 2025 of Mercedes-Benz. We welcome our guests here on site with us in Sindelfingen and those of you joining us via the live stream.

My name is Christina Schenck and I'm responsible for Investor Relations, Digital and Communications.

Good morning, everybody, also from my side. My name is Willem Spelten, I'm heading Corporate Communications at Mercedes-Benz.

Thank you very much for joining us today for this event to reflect on the past year as well as to take an outlook on the years to come here on site in Sindelfingen, as well as on the live stream.

We have a 4-hour program ahead of us, divided into three parts: the annual results conference, a capital market update, and, of course, a Q&A. You can follow the stream with simultaneous translation into German and Chinese, and, of course, for all of you on site, you can also access German and Chinese translation on channel 1 and channel 3.

The session is broadcasted on our corporate website. It will end after the Q&A session approximately at 11:45 Stuttgart time today.

We will now start with the first part, the actual annual results conference, and our CEO, Ola Källenius.

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to this 2026 annual results conference. We're looking forward to sharing with you today our numbers and what's happened at Mercedes-Benz in 2025.

Right after this first presentation, more importantly, what's our game plan, what are we doing, and how do we see the next year for Mercedes-Benz develop? If we start by reflecting a bit on 2025, yes, it is true that the auto industry and our company were in a once-in-a-100-years transformation, going towards zero emission, going towards fully digitized, intelligent products like this S-Class that is standing right next to me here.

It's happening in an environment that is dynamic, more dynamic than we have experienced in many, many years. Maybe the main topic that the debate centered around in 2025 was tariffs and trade relationships, but it's not the only thing that is going on in the environment, which means flexibility and agility is key to master this transformation in the current circumstances.

What did we focus on in 2025? First and foremost, innovation, technology, and preparing the biggest product launch offensive in the history of the company, where we launched the first of 40 models that are coming in the space of 3 years.

Why was this so important for Mercedes-Benz in 2025? We have been working for 4 or 5 years to build technology platforms, and we're going to dig deeper into this in the strategy update that follows right after this annual results conference.

It is about a comprehensive next-generation powertrain portfolio, needless to say, on the electrical side, but also on the electrified, high-tech combustion side. Maybe the bigger revolution on technology is to replace the brain and the central nervous system of the vehicle with what we call the Mercedes-Benz Operating System.

Within a very short period of time, we're going to proliferate this technology throughout our whole portfolio. We started and launching with the CLA that won Car of the Year, was safest car tested by Euro NCAP in 2025.

Of the established manufacturers, either we were the first or at least one of the first to launch a software-defined vehicle. While all of that is going on, of course, in the market conditions that we're operating in, we're managing the go-to-market thoughtfully and keep an eye on the ball when it comes to cost efficiencies and capital return to our shareholders.

Harald will get into that in more detail. If you look at the numbers, what is the effect?

With an adjusted EBIT of €8.2 billion for the group, as you can see, these market conditions are reflected in our results. We also took the opportunity in 2025 to make the organization leaner and more streamlined, and also not just rejuvenate our management with next-gen talent, but also make the management team smaller, leaner, flatter, and more impactful, which is what is mainly reflected in the difference between the adjusted number and the reported number.

I want to highlight two numbers on this chart. On the one hand, the €5.4 billion free cash flow.

For many years in a row, we have been a very solid producer of free cash flow, and we have returned free cash flow to our shareholders in those years at an amount which is unprecedented in the history of this company. Even if you look around the industry in this eventful 2025, that €5.4 billion stands out as one of the most solid numbers on cash flow production of any car company.

In spite of handing the cash back to the shareholders, after we have done everything else, funded our incredible product launch and technology and innovation plan, our net industrial liquidity remains above €30 billion. We have a rock-solid balance sheet to take on the next phase of transformation, which will be intense in the next few years.

We can do that from a position of strength. If you look on the sales side, the reduction in sales is mainly down to managing the fierce competition in China.

That is where you will find the major part of that reduction, where we don't go for market share at all costs. Our head of China, Oliver Thöne, will talk more about that in the capital markets update after this presentation.

Yes, because these are wholesale figures, we made some, I would call it tactical management of our wholesale numbers in the United States in 2025. I don't think it's surprising with a tariff level that was at different numbers throughout the year.

If you would put on the retail numbers here, of course, it would be a little bit better picture, but I think we managed that in the smartest possible way. On the top-end vehicle side, a very solid 15% share of overall sales.

Banner year for the G, record, with a very solid sales across the world. Also the electric G, if you look at an electric vehicle in that price class, the most sold electric vehicle by a wide margin in that price class around the world.

For the fans that have taken the step into the next gen, they're blown away by what that vehicle can do. Solid Maybach year.

AMG is readying an enormous product offensive that is coming in the next years, mainly unfolding in '27 and forward. We'll get to that later.

Yes, S-Class and GLS, they are now at the end of this stage of the life cycle. This car that we presented only a couple of years ago at our 140-year anniversary is like a whole new S-Class.

Technically speaking, it is a refresh during the life cycle, but if you update more than half of the car, 2,700 parts, it is a new car. The same happens to the GLS this year as well.

We have a run-out scenario and then a run-up scenario of those very important vehicles in the top-end portfolio. With regard to electrified vehicles, even though every single combustion vehicle in our portfolio is also electrified with a potent 48-volt system mild hybrid, we stayed at roughly the 20% xEV.

Not surprisingly, we have ambitious growth plans for this coming, with the main focus being on BEV. More about that later.

Now, I would like to hand over to Harald to give us a deeper dive into the numbers. Harald, please.

Thank you, Ola, and hello, everybody. Very happy to take you through, yeah, quite a lot of numbers, but I think very important to understand what's happening behind that.

Ola talked already through the sales numbers for cars. If we look on the revenue side of things, obviously that follows the sales evolution.

If you look a bit on the ASP evolution, you can see obviously that 2025 was a very competitive market environment, but also an environment with adverse FX effects. That's what you can see reflected in the revenue evolution.

If you look on the profit side, €4.8 billion adjusted EBIT on cars and a 5.5 on cash flow, let's dig into that a bit more in depth, what is behind it. Looking on this chart, well, what can you see?

In summary, I would say, quite a lot of macro and market headwinds in 2025, but significantly mitigated by efficiency work. Let's go a bit more in detail into the bridge, but I try to simplify it a bit.

If you look at what is behind that evolution of 8 from 2024 to 5 in 2025: 2.5% ROS dilution coming from tariffs and FX; volume, structure, pricing, and product-related measures had an impact of a minus 4; raw mats favorable by 0.5; efficiencies, more than 3, 3.3% efficiencies in 1 year for material, operations, SG&A, and all other cost elements; and a BBAC headwind of 0.3. What does it mean altogether?

If you look at the sum of cost measures and improvements, they fully compensate the market evolution, and it leaves us with the FX and the tariffs basically with a 2.5 down. That's what happened in 2025.

A word maybe on the Q4. Some of you already reverse calculate and look at the fourth quarter and might wonder, whoops, what happened over there?

Yes, you see a 2.6% return on sales adjusted for cars. The fourth quarter came in line with the expectations, slightly higher deliveries, sales, cost phasing ramping up towards the end of the year, a bit traditional, but also some supplier one-time included, fixed cost capitalization as we reduced the stock level.

Then on top, in the fourth quarter, we had to accrue for a warranty-related measure, which is a three-digit million number sitting in that 2.6, which probably you cannot take as a run rate moving forward. Please important to note in this respect.

Now let's have a look at the cash flow for cars in 2025. We had a favorable support from working capital in here: lower inventories, but also lower receivables due to a lower sales volume.

Then let me emphasize the investment side of things which you see here. Clearly, 2025 marks the peak of investments for cars.

That's why the net investments exceed the depreciation, as you can see here on the chart. All in all, the investments, if you take the PPE and the R&D, are at €12.7 billion in 2025, compared to a 12.1 in 2024.

Yes, we went up, but probably a bit less than what we said at the beginning of the year. Clearly, this is the peak and from now on, that will decline.

More on that a bit later. Then on the other line, I think you have the stuff you know: the BBAC equity dividend reversal and the non-cash effects related to the NLPs, the personal cost reduction measures, dealer provisioning, and the like.

Now let's have a look at the van side of things. Before I go into the numbers, maybe some of the business highlights.

We started the year in Vans by the divestment of the Vans operations in Argentina, adjusting the industrial footprint over there. Very happy, some of you could see, a very intense year to prepare for the new van architecture coming up, the van VLE and the van VLS.

I think super excited to reveal that in a not-too-distant future. This ushers into a new era on the van side, and that was a very important year to progress in that direction.

Looking on the business evolution on the van side: 359,000 units in a competitive market environment in Europe, especially in the fleet business, and also in the US. The electric vans increased by 46% to an 8% xEV share, with improved availability of vehicles on the EV van side.

Revenues are in line with the sales. On the EBIT and the cash flow side, let's have a look into that, as I think these are quite respectable numbers given these market circumstances.

In other words, €1.8 billion of EBIT adjusted on the van side, which is a 10.2% return on sales adjusted, which is, to my understanding and knowledge, is a benchmark number for that type of business in that type of market circumstances. How did we get there?

Volume, structure, pricing net was a 4% minus in 2025, with sales and pricing negative, but the mix being favorable. Then we had FX headwinds as well on the van side, but basically we compensated by industrial performance.

Let's have a look at the cash flow side in the vans. Here, clearly, what I said before, the investment into the new van platform marks, I think, the highlight of that chart.

A significant level of invest into that platform on the EV side, but also on the combustion side. It means nothing else as we, at the same time, ready the industrial side of things with ramp-up in Vitoria, but then also in Eastern Europe in our Jawor plant.

That is nothing else than preparing the van business for the next decade to come with that type of investments. On the cash flow side, or back on the cash flow side here, a bit of working capital support as well as in the other bucket, a bit similar like the provisioning I mentioned on the car side.

Then let's turn to financial services. In 2025, we reshaped Mercedes-Benz Mobility.

Basically, we took the customer front end of Mercedes-Benz Mobility and merged it and combined it with the cars sales organization into one customer unit. Mathias is going to talk about that a bit more in depth later.

That became effective Jan 1st, 2026. With that, we create an even more seamless customer journey and, at the same time, also create efficiencies and synergies.

Important, I think, for the financial community, the capital structure and the segment reporting does not change as a function of that structural change. At the same time, in 2025, we focused on the core business in financial services.

If you remember, the divestment from our ride-hailing Free Now at the beginning of the year, and at the end of the year, the announcement that we're going to divest from Athlon. Now looking on the business evolution side, we had a higher penetration rate in mobility in 2025.

However, when it comes to the business volume, the portfolio, that follows the evolution on the sales side on cars and vans. Furthermore, the portfolio is impacted also by FX effects.

With this, however, the EBIT is up by 12%. Let's have a look how we got to that one.

It means a €1.3 billion EBIT adjusted on the mobility or the financial services side, with a return on equity of 9.7% adjusted. How did we get there?

In the portfolio, we now see the interest margin improvement coming through, which we did follow already since a while and successfully locked in on the acquisition side. That is now going into the portfolio margin.

That is point number one. Also on the efficiency side, mobility financial services delivered, I think, a pretty remarkable job with a 10% of OPEX saving in 1 year to help the profitability recovery.

That has been slightly offset or reduced by a higher cost of credit risk. With this, I think a pretty solid year in 2025 with a positive development trajectory throughout the year.

Now let's turn to the group. I explained the division side of things, what's left is obviously the recon.

Here, you can see the at-equity contribution from our Daimler Truck stake. All in all, that means the EBIT adjusted at the group level is at €8.2 billion.

Then on the adjustments, the most important one refers to our NLPP personal cost reduction program, where, all in all, we accrued €1.6 billion in 2025. Many of the colleagues will come off the payroll end '25, beginning '26, and therefore you will see a rather fast payback of that €1.6 billion charge moving forward.

The other one charge in the adjustments refers to the legal proceedings in the UK related to discretionary commission models in the past, unchanged compared to the third quarter. The third element is on the van side, the adjustments in the context of the divestment in Argentina I mentioned before.

With that, we are at EBIT at the group level on a booked side, EBIT booked, at €5.8 billion. Now over to the cash flow.

We talked already about cars and vans in terms of their contribution at the group level. Significantly lower taxes in 2025 compared to previous year, a favorable contribution from the interest result at a 500 million, the truck divi sitting inside here.

That means, all in all, I think a healthy €5.4 billion cash generation. On the fourth quarter, the cash flow was slightly negative.

I'm sure you observed that, but that is a function of a bit of working capital volatility in the last quarter, which is, I think, not uncommon. If you look on the adjustment side on the cash flow, you'll find the first cash-outs, but the minor one, on the NLPP program I referred to before, legal proceedings, and a bit on the M&A side.

This one is related to the divestment of our own retail in Germany. On the net cash side, well, I explained the cash flow evolution in 2025 already.

From the beginning of the year, what else? We paid the divi of 4.1 in the course of 2025.

We launched a new share buyback program in fall. Actually, we got started with it on Jan on November 1st.

So €2 billion program over 12 months. In the remaining months of the year 2025, we already did around €300 million, which leaves us with 1.7 to go in 2026.

With that, I think you can observe a very, very comfortable and healthy net cash position at the end of 2025 of €32 billion. Now let's close the chapter on 2025 and let look forward on 2026, what is ahead here.

Whenever we talk about the forward-looking statements, for sure, it's important to look at the details, the footnotes. Please have a careful look at that, at the disclaimer section in the document here.

One point I'd like to emphasize is, obviously, all of that deck is based on today's assumptions, also referring to the regulatory framework. If you think about the tariffs, obviously, and what we also assume in these numbers with regard to tariffs is that the US-EU tariff agreement will come into effect, i.e., it will come down to zero effective April 2026.

That is the assumption which is built into here. Now let's have a look into the division guidances.

Obviously, we'll start with cars. First on the sales side, overall, we have a constructive view for 2025 when it comes to sales, and clearly, we target growth in all of the markets ex-China for 2026.

What does it mean? In Europe, we see, on the back of the very strong product launches to come, growth momentum, growth possibility in Europe.

Same in the US, with a product momentum, with a very strong position in the top-end segment, with a 30% share of top-end in the US. I think with the products to come, it's legitimate to go for it, as well as in the overseas and in the other markets.

With regard to China, we also believe that in the second half of the year, the products coming will generate favorable momentum. Overall, in that very dynamic environment in China, we retain a more cautious view, and that means that for China for 2026, we expect sales to be lower than 2025 in China.

Globally, however, we believe that therefore we can keep the sales level at about the level of 2025. Important to note in that, as we have a year of product ramp-ups, that the first quarter probably will be rather the lowest in terms of the sales numbers and then building the momentum throughout the year in H2.

With regard to the mix, on the top-end side, we do expect a mix of 14% to 15%. You might wonder, after 15% in 2025, why should it come down if all of these products are coming in?

There's a more technical reason for that if you want to have a deeper look into it, and that refers to the AMG side in the entry positions where the AMG entry models transition from the current ones into the new ones, and that has an impact in 2026 on the total top-end share. On the xEV side of things, we target 21% to 23% in terms of the xEV share, clearly driven by higher BEV volumes in 2026 with the products to come into market.

Whereas, on the entry side, from the predecessor of the MMA, we migrate probably from the plug-ins into the BEV, so that has an impact on the plug-in. All in all, that means a 21% to 23% xEV share for 2026.

Now obviously, the stuff you're maybe most interested in this part of the section, before we turn a bit to the longer-term perspective in the section to come and thereafter, the profit guidance for cars for 2026. If we depart from the 5% in 2025, what are the key building blocks 2026?

I think that's important to understand. In 2026, we face a headwind from the full-year run rate on the tariffs and the full-year run rate on the adverse FX side, and that is a 1% down compared to 2025.

Then with the structure and the competitive pricing environment, we see a slight headwind of 0.5% in 2026. Raw mats probably reversing if you ever look at current trends, also probably 0.5% of a headwind.

Then efficiencies kicking in again, maybe not at the full force of the 3% in 2025, but call it roughly a 2% of efficiencies net in 2026 again. Then the depreciation associated to all of the new products coming into the market, where technically the depreciation of what has been capitalized starts at the start of production, has a headwind of 0.7 negative.

All in all, that leads to a 3% to 5% return on sales adjusted. A bit similar, if you allow me to compare with the bridge between '24, '25, where I told you basically all the market elements have been mitigated by efficiency measures, if you look on the bridge now '25, '26, it means that the market evolution is completely absorbed by further efficiency measures, and it actually leaves you, if you want to really make it simple, with the headwind from the tariffs and the FX '25 to 2026.

Then on the investment side, I emphasized before that 2025, we did see the peak of the investments with a 12.7 in terms of PPE and R&D. Clearly, now for 2026, we therefore see the PPE to come slightly down and the R&D to come significantly down compared to 2025.

Obviously, if that investment comes down, the depreciation accelerates, that is favorable in terms of cash conversion. Hence, you see a cash conversion rate at 1 to 1.2 on cars.

Let's have a look on the van side of things. First, in terms of the sales side, we do expect some slight sales growth despite headwinds expected in China and the US, on the back of the product strengths.

We see the xEV share between 8% to 10%, expanding even further with the full availability of the products, and then in particular with the VLE ramp-up to come later in the course of the year. What does it mean in terms of the profit evolution on vans?

Here we maintain the guidance of 8% to 10% as we had it in 2025. Coming from the 10% in 2025, what are the building blocks in the van bridge?

The FX is also negative here, but a bit less so, with an 0.4. The volume and the mix should be positive, a bit less than 2.

The pricing is expected to remain stable. Then obviously, we have to prepare for the VLE ramp-up in the sites and the products that comes along with some cost which is probably in the vicinity also over 2%.

That's how we're getting to, I think, a pretty clean 8 to 10 on the vans for 2026. Looking on the investment side and the cash flow for vans, I talked about cars, the investment peak being 2025.

For the vans, the investment peak is 2026. Obviously, with the VLE and then later on the VLS coming to market, it means on the R&D side, we will be slightly above previous-year level.

On the PPE side, as the emphasis now goes on the industrial side of things, it's going to be significantly above. That is pretty clear that this weights on the cash conversion ratio.

Therefore, that sits at a rather low number of 0.1 to 0.3 in 2026. I would say that if 2025 was investment peak for cars, 2026 is investment peak for vans, and then it starts to decline also on the van side.

Looking on financial services for 2026, we do expect a pretty solid return on equity adjusted of 10% to 12% for 2026. What are the building blocks here?

Favorable effect from the portfolio margin expanding further, we continue on the cost savings, and we do expect some flattish cost of credit risk. With that, I would suggest we have a look at the group guidance.

Obviously, that follows the same assumptions as on the division guidances. All of the comments I made before obviously apply also here.

It means first on the revenue side, we expect that at prior-year level, roughly in the €130 billion territory. On the EBIT side, we see that significantly above prior-year level.

That is the reported EBIT. Remember, we had in 2025 the restructuring charge for the NLPP, which we don't expect to repeat in 2026.

Then on the cash flow side, we do expect that the cash flow for 2026 to be slightly below prior year. Please remember that that will include a significant cash-out for the NLPP program.

The underlying cash flow, I think, with that, looks to be rather solid and strong. If you think about the bandwidth of that guidance range, slightly lower compared to 2025, you should rather think about the lower end side of that band.

That's important maybe to note as well. As well, I think important to note that that cash flow guidance does not include any further cash-ins from M&A or divestments.

With this, I think we covered 2025 and the guidance for 2026. Now I'm handing over back to Willem.

Thank you very much, Harald. Thank you very much, Ola, for looking back at 2025, on our results.

After a short break, we will focus on the future of Mercedes-Benz. Little teaser, it's a bright future.

We will back on stage in 15 minutes at 9:00 sharp. Until then, we will pause the live stream, but please make sure to redial in or to reactivate at 9:00.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ola. Thank you, Harald, for providing us with a review on 2025 results.

We're now shifting from 2025 to the future of our company. Ola Källenius, Mathias Geisen, Oliver Thöne, and Harald Wilhelm will provide us with an update on where we stand in terms of implementing our strategy, the progress achieved, the momentum behind the initiatives, and the next steps on our path forward.

Please welcome back on stage, Ola.

Thank you, Christina, and welcome back to this strategy update for Mercedes-Benz. We will focus in this strategy update on Mercedes-Benz Cars.

For those of you who are Formula 1 fans, you know that the 2026 season is the start of a new regulation, actually a fundamental rule change, both on the powertrain side, more electrification to negotiate the lap, but also a reworked car, a little bit smaller, a little bit lighter. I would consider it one of the biggest rule changes in the history of Formula 1.

We're now testing in Bahrain as we speak, with George Russell and Kimi Antonelli. Why do I say this?

Because this feels a little bit like what's going on in the auto industry as well. The rules are changing.

As the rules are changing, market environments are changing, even the macro environment is changing, the technology is a transformation once in a 100 years, you have to also as a company be able to be agile and flexible and make the adjustments that are necessary to take on these new rules. That is what we want to show you in this presentation today: What is Mercedes' game plan going forward here in the next years?

I'm just going to start with some headline numbers to give you a feeling for the destination. We want to grow.

Absolutely clear priority in the midterm is to grow and come back to at least roughly a 2 million number for the car side. Mathias Geisen will talk more about that in his go-to-market presentation right after me.

Of the historic product launch offensive at Mercedes-Benz, we're putting a lot of emphasis on models in what we call the top-end vehicle segment. In this same timeframe, we want to grow our top-end vehicle sales quite significantly.

As we're in transformation on a journey towards zero emission, we want to double our xEVs in the same period, with a very strong emphasis on BEVs. In some cases, Harald mentioned it in the results conference just a few minutes ago, that for instance, on MMA, the new entry architecture for Mercedes-Benz, we have gracefully retired the plug-in hybrid and are focusing on BEV and the regular mild hybrid powertrains.

If that is the destination, and that destination should also lead to a solid profitability and return to our shareholders, Harald will talk about that mainly in his section, what is more important is what is the journey? How are we going to get there?

What have we done in the last years to prepare ourselves for this, and what are the strengths that we can play to? That can be summarized with these five chapters, and it starts with technology and product.

Of course, the go-to-market strategy that Mathias will cover. China is on everybody's mind, the most competitively intense, but also the largest car market in the world.

Oliver Thöne is joining us here this morning, our head of China, to give you a drill-down on what our game plan specifically for China looks like. Next to this whole revolution that is going on technologically and on the market side, we are fundamentally reinventing the company: the people, the organization, the tools, leveraging artificial intelligence, but also introducing robotics into our manufacturing environment.

Last, but not least, for all of you who are investors in this company, large or small, we always have you on our mind, and we want to continue our very solid track record of returns to our shareholders. Now go a little bit deeper and see what this means.

Over the last 4 years, we have, starting with the electrical side, changed everything. The new generation of electric vehicles that are entering into the market for Mercedes-Benz, starting with the CLA that we launched last year, and CLA Shooting Brake, GLB, GLC electric, and all those vehicles that are now in the pipeline, they come with a fundamentally from the ground up newly developed electric powertrain platform that we can scale in every single segment of Mercedes, completely flexibly in production, from range-toppers using the most sophisticated NMC technology to also models more in the entry offering per model with LFP inside the same energy box, fully flexibly across plants and across models.

If you look carefully at the details of the numbers of, for instance, the CLA or the GLC electric, and you look at the size of those vehicles, what they contain, and what they actually consume in terms of kilowatt hours per 100 kilometers, it's almost like you get to an impossible equation. They are fully loaded, fully Mercedes technology, all bells and whistles that you can dream of, but at the same time, class-leading in efficiency.

That wasn't possible in the old paradigm on combustion cars. It's like bigger cars, more fuel consumption.

Here, we beat even entry offerings of some of the volume competitors in terms of efficiency. How is that even possible?

Technology. Technology and innovation, scalable across the whole portfolio.

To make a splash and also make a statement, that is why we built this AMG GT XX concept car and drove, quote-unquote, "around the world" in less than 8 days, smashed 25 records for any electric vehicle in the world with this orange beauty down here. Was that a PR exercise?

No, it was not. Technically speaking, it was a test drive.

In only a few months' time, we will have the world premiere of the production car of this, and it will go into the market in the second half of this year. Here, we also demonstrate the absolute frontier of what electric drive train can do.

Maybe on powertrain, I could end my presentation right there and say, "Yeah, let's go." As I mentioned, we live in a heterogeneous world.

Adoption towards electrification in the 150-plus markets that we serve around the world, it's not the same everywhere. It is clear to us that for the foreseeable future, minimum the next 10 years, probably a little bit longer, it will be an all-of-the-above scenario.

A little more than 2 years ago, that is how we have adapted to the new rules, coming back to the Formula 1 car analogy. We have in this calendar year 2026 ready to go: four-cylinder petrol and diesel, six-cylinder petrol and diesel, brand-new V8, and the high-performance AMG versions of these powertrains, EU7-ready.

For those of you who are hobby combustion engineers, if you study the EU7 rules closely, you have to run lambda 1, and you cannot run rich at the top end of your revving curve, which you need for peak performance. Maybe you don't use it every day in traffic, I understand that, maybe on the autobahn.

To solve that equation without sacrificing performance is very difficult. Just to demonstrate how comprehensive the update of the electrified high-tech powertrain portfolio is, for this S-Class, and here is where it starts, I think it's the first car in the world with that generation powertrain with that level of technology ready to go, more performance, most stringent emissions rules.

For every meaningful product portfolio position, and certainly also in the performance segment for AMG, we're ready to go, and we will roll out this across the portfolio in the next couple of years. That in itself, as a technology platform, is a big deal, and it sets us up to go for it.

An even bigger deal is the work that we have done on the Mercedes-Benz Operating System in the last 4 to 5 years. When we launched the CLA in the summer of last year, I believe we were the first, shall I call it established manufacturer, not new entrant, established manufacturer, that launched a fully software-defined vehicle, with top-of-the-line compute, top-of-the-line sensing, and a fully comprehensive holistic software stack based upon both the traditional AI and end-to-end GenAI.

Others are working on that, too. Some of which work on it for their electric cars and do something else on the combustion car.

In the case of Mercedes-Benz, MB.OS is now coming to the complete lineup: all electric cars, all combustion cars. Here's the S-Class.

I mentioned it in the presentation before, we have changed more than half the car, 2,700 parts. The most significant change is actually what's beneath the sheet metal.

It is a complete replacement of the brain and the central nervous system of the car. Every single Mercedes will be on this platform.

It is also a flexible platform. We can launch a top-notch feature with a tech partner in the West, and at the same time, on the same foundation, do the exact same thing in China with a completely different tech partner, and add whatever we like, whenever we like.

The car digitally doesn't grow old. It stays fresh and will stay at the forefront of what's technologically possible from now on and forever.

It's like a river that flows, and it never stops. Because this also fundamentally changed how you produce cars.

You fill up the software now in the final assembly, as opposed to get it from a supplier inside some kind of an ECU, the old paradigm. In your after-sales organization, any analysis that you want to do on consumer behavior, mind you with anonymized data, of course, data protection, or any other issue that the customer has, you can now go in with full OTA capability in 100% of the car.

We have had OTA capability for years, but now it's the whole vehicle that is reachable. It is incredibly powerful, and I think the biggest technological change that we have experienced in this company in decades.

We are one of the leading, if not the leading, established OEM that have made this happen. What's the feature that we talk a lot about?

Assisted driving, automated driving. Every single Mercedes now comes with an NVIDIA supercomputer in it, 27 sensors around the car in this vehicle here.

I'm thinking to myself, where are they? Kudos to the design colleagues that they can mask that quite beautifully.

A combination between a rule-based AI stack and a Gen end-to-end AI stack that we launched together with NVIDIA at the CES at the beginning of the year. Level 2++, literally, is built into every car, everywhere.

Yes, we have launched it first in China, because it's allowed. We're launching it now in the United States, because it's also allowed.

In Europe, you can have a debate, but we're going to have a positive discussion with regulators in Europe to demonstrate how sophisticated this technology is, and hope that we can also bring it to our customers in Europe soon. Next-gen L3, much higher speeds, much less restrictions, based upon, of course, that foundation, in development, it's coming.

We have made the S-Class, and here we deliberately chose our flagship, L4-ready, with all the redundancies that you need for L4: redundant steering, redundant braking, redundant power supply, redundant compute, etcetera. We are launching this year the first pilots together with our partners, Uber, NVIDIA, and Momenta.

It will not just stay at one location, it will go to several locations here over the next couple of years. The new S-Class is L4-ready as well.

We have talked about this product offensive. Yes, it's very large.

I looked at this chart and I was thinking to myself, actually, I have a pretty good memory, Christina, and asked, "I feel that it looked different than the slide that I showed last year." Sometimes, Mercedes is more sophisticated than it should be, and I'm sure we have a PhD-level department that does nothing about count nomenclature and models.

I can say this, if you pull out the chart from last year, it's actually the same chart. They didn't show all the AMG models here, and then they added the long wheelbase.

Whatever. It is the same product offensive that we talked about last year.

Some have now been uncovered. The biggest launch year is the one that we have now, and it's going to be really, really big.

It happens both on the electrical side and on the high-tech combustion side. Stay tuned for a very busy 2026.

In these next 3 months alone: the new VLE, which is the successor of what we call the V-Class today, the Maybach S-Class, the new GLE, the new GLE Coupe, the new GLS, the new electric C-Class, the new AMG GT. Inside 3 months, seven world premieres.

I've never experienced anything like that. For those of you who are in product media, and I see a few here in the room today, just stay with us for the next 3 months, we will keep you busy.

Yes, I mentioned, and I think Mathias will talk more about it, there's a lot of emphasis on the top end to make sure that in our traditional stronghold, where we are the largest manufacturer in the world, that we build upon that position. Defend where necessary, and increase where there are opportunities.

We will do that both for Maybach, particularly for AMG, and also in the G. The G is one of those things, it's a scarce product.

Everybody wants to have it, many people dream about it. When we announced last year that we were going to do a G convertible that we will launch in the second half of next year, I didn't know that I had that many friends.

Suddenly, I got WhatsApp messages from people I haven't spoken to in a long, long time. We will, of course, make sure that it stays precious, but we have growth potential here, as I mentioned in the beginning.

In terms of the markets, Mathias, I don't want to steal your thunder. We are looking at growth already in this year in the United States, in Europe, and in overseas.

Some people with specific focus on Europe and a specific focus on Germany, they come to me and say, "Ola, what is it now? What is your portfolio strategy?

What is your go-to-market strategy?" Build, protect our home turf of top-end vehicles, it's where we have the origins of the Mercedes-Benz brand, and it's also the main part of our profitability.

Grow with core, and especially now that we're entering the electric vehicles on core, we have a chance to really make a dent there, and we will do that. Also stay in entry and manage the entry volume.

That is the position where, I don't know, the 28-year-old version of yourself, where you get to know the Mercedes brand first and when you step in. For those of you who were particularly nervous about the entry offering in Europe, yes, we did make a decision last year that we will have a very exciting, hot-as-hell successor to what is currently the A-Class.

No, we're not going to show it to you today, because the current generation A-Class is running for this year and until the end of next year. Rest assured, for the European market, we will have an adequate, very attractive entry point into the Mercedes-Benz brand.

Stay tuned. You can spend 2 hours talking about China.

I'm going to spend 2 seconds, because I'm going to hand that whole chapter over to Oliver Thöne, who will explain in all dimensions what is our plan to tackle this most fiercely competitive environment in the automotive industry today. That leads me to the transformation of the company.

We're a product company, we're a technology company. The origin of this company is all about innovation and so on.

I admit it, we talk from morning till evening about cars and technology. That is what we do.

You should not waste this opportunity of a once-in-a-100-years transformation to not at the same time look at your enterprise. Kind of a quiet revolution in the background that is going on at Mercedes-Benz in many dimensions.

I'm only looking at four here, is that we are reinventing the enterprise as well at the same time. It starts with people, and the people that carry the most responsibility in the company is, of course, the management.

We have significantly changed the management structure. We have significantly elevated next-generation talent into prominent positions in the company, not only on the board.

If you look at the level one below the board, it's almost like half of the team is new. The people that carried the torch for a long, long time that are now going into retirement and that deserve maybe a little bit time for themselves as well, there is a hungry, young generation of management on the top level, but on all levels, ready to take over, and also in a much slimmer, flatter, optimized structure.

This winning attitude, we want to carry into the whole team at Mercedes-Benz, and we're working on that across the whole company, across all levels. Kind of that Formula 1 spirit: You go for it.

It's all about shaving some lap time off of the sectors, and ultimately win the race. This is also powered by technology.

The revolution is not only happening on the product side. We have dozens, if not hundreds, of AI-driven projects going on in the company that is going to change how we work.

It's going to fundamentally change how we work. It's happening in every industry.

What's going on in advanced pilots with robotics, it feels a little bit like, I don't know, the Hollywood movie, I, Robot, many years ago. That felt like science fiction.

It's not science fiction anymore. We are close.

We're doing pilots now. We are invested in one of the leading companies in the United States that is in the process of creating a next-generation humanoid-style robots and also other applications of it, called Apptronik.

I saw another car company, the market cap went up a lot, maybe, Harald, we undersold that bit. Nevertheless, we're going to use robotics to also, in the next years, not decades, years, also revolutionize productivity and how we make things.

Last, but not least, but I leave it to you, Harald, for every shareholder that is listening, we know who we're working for, we're working for you. We are very, very, very focused that everything that I just mentioned also leads to healthy return to you.

With that, the first 140 years, they were exciting. We're looking forward to the next 140 years.

Thank you very much. There's a place we all know, a place we love to go.

That's home. It's where we feel at ease and only do as we please.

Have breakfast in bed, sing in the shower, and eat like no one's watching. Here's where every journey starts or ends.

Where we spend time with family or all by ourselves. It's getting dark, tell a good night story.

Then, sleep, little baby. We've been sparking it for 140 years.

Welcome home.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. What you've seen in this film is our recipe for success.

It's about engineering excellence and superior customer experience. That's what we call welcome home.

Also to you, welcome home to Mercedes-Benz. Ladies and gentlemen, the last time I was in front of this audience was roughly 3 years ago when I was still responsible for our van unit.

Times have changed meanwhile, and today, I'm happy to share with you our go-to-market strategy and how we want to reach the 2 million Ola mentioned earlier on. We want to reach those 2 million in a profitable and sustainable way.

This is why we will further grow our top-end vehicle share, and we will massively grow the share of our xEVs in addition to that as well, because we have to strategically focus on electric mobility as well. How do we want to achieve it?

With a great brand, great products, and great customer experience. Is it easy to achieve?

Definitely not easy, but we are well positioned to get it done. Let me tell you how.

First things first. 140 years and 2 weeks, Karl Benz invented the automobile, and we had a big celebration.

Still today, we're a highly respected and leading automotive brand. That's the reason why we didn't only celebrate with partners.

If you look at this slide, we received congratulations from lots of our competitors around the world, and that shows what strong brand Mercedes-Benz still is. What's the reason for it?

We are still number one, the most valuable luxury automotive brand in the world. What I believe is even more impressive, if you look at all the brands in the world across industry, and I would say there are plenty, we are amongst the top 10.

That shows the strength of our brand. We perform with three very important sub-brands like G-Class, Maybach, and AMG, and we have highest customer satisfaction.

We are in good shape with a very strong brand, which is definitely a competitive advantage in disruptive times with a technological transformation going on, as well as major geopolitical challenges around the world. If you have such a strong brand, it's not good enough only to invest in your products, you also have to invest in your brand.

When we talk to our customers around the globe, they all like being in contact with us digitally, but what they want is more physical touchpoints to our brand. This is why we decided end of last year to increase our sponsoring activities.

We are the new premium sponsor of the WTA, female tennis tour, to get close contact to our customers on site, to fans, and to potential customers. Second topic: We don't want to wait for the customers to come to our showrooms, because if you do that, you normally already intend to buy a vehicle.

We want to get closer to where the customers are. We build brand studios around the world, launching 10 of them this year in metropolitan areas.

We even go beyond automotive with branded real estate. That's a licensed system here, and we work with luxury real estate developers and will build 14,000 apartments around the globe, where customers get direct access to the Mercedes-Benz design and our overall market setup.

That's why we believe, from a brand perspective, we are well set up for another 140 years. Now let's look at the products, and let me say one thing upfront.

Before I did run the van unit, I was head of corporate strategy, and 5 years ago, we definitely totally overestimated the speed with which customers would be willing to switch over to electric mobility. We also overestimated their desire for having a completely differentiated design for their electric vehicle.

What were the guiding principles for our new launch campaign of the more than 40 models Ola mentioned? A duality of the drivetrains, available as combustion and as electric; all share the same iconic design, independent from the drivetrain we apply; and partnering up with companies, technological players in parts of the world to make sure we can cater the needs and especially the regional needs of customers better.

The front-runners you see here: CLA, GLC, GLB. The CLA was the first one, and it shows the potential of our launch campaign.

Having been awarded Car of the Year 2026, having been awarded across segments the safest tested vehicle by Euro NCAP last year, that really shows the DNA we have for our new products to come. Order intake is extremely strong, be it for the CLA or for the GLC, which has not even seen the showrooms yet.

We are in very good shape, but there is much more to come. When Ola talked about the 40 or more than 40 vehicles, it is important to mention it's not about the sheer amount of products, it's about their strategic relevance.

I said that we want to profitably grow to 2 million. 15% of our sales today are top end, but 30% of the products we will be launching take place in the top-end segment.

That shows that strategically, this is a vital business for us. It's also true to say, in markets like Europe where entry and core are predominantly important, we also have to make sure that we address those customers.

That's what we'll do with the model we will launch below the CLA as an entry model into our brand to make sure we cover both bookends of the overall rollout. Now I've talked about the brand, I've talked about the products.

I said earlier on, it's about customer experience, because this combination is what really drives loyalty. Let's start with the retail network.

We have a new retail concept offering modern in-store experience. We have rolled it out already to more than 50 dealer 50% of the dealerships around the world, and we will grow this number in the next 3 years to roughly 85%.

Second topic: customer service. The numbers here look great.

We have a car park of 28 million, we have a service retention of 90% for the younger products, but that's no reason to lean back. We still have to invest in innovative service concepts.

That's why we are in the middle of rolling out mobile service to make sure that we come to the customer if he wants his vehicle to be serviced at home. We also increase our activities when it comes to customer events.

We launched last year our so-called Silver Arrows program for top-end customers, where we really offer money-can't-buy experiences to get closer contact and more fascination for the brand as well. Having talked about the brand, having talked about the product and customer experience, the question is now, how do we orchestrate all of that?

1 year ago, we decided to merge all activities in marketing, sales, and financial services into one area of responsibility to make sure that all the customer-facing offers are managed out of one hand. We can manage the complete life cycle as one integrated profit pool.

That's pretty unique to the industry, that's also pretty new to us. We've started 1st of January with this concept, but we believe that we can increase retention even further, especially given that we already have 70% of our customers having a service, a finance, or a leasing contract.

We believe we can increase this number even further and drive retention to make it overall a profitable overall result. That's new.

Now I talked a lot about the global approach. Now let's look into the regions.

Let's start with Europe. Europe has a slightly above average top-end share, 50% entry, and behind China with 40%, the biggest region when it comes to battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.

For us, it was the biggest sales region last year. What do we want to do?

First, we will close the white spots. Right now, there is no electric C-Class, there is no electric GLC.

Second, we will continue offering EU-specific products like the CLA Shooting Brake or, as I just mentioned, the entry model below the CLA. We will also apply an optimized channel mix to make sure that we best balance volume and profitability.

We will further roll out the agency model, already covering 50% of our European sales. This number will go up for the years to come because we're in the midst of rolling it out to other markets as well.

If we look into the US market, that's a different market. Extremely high top-end share, 30%.

75% of the customers decide to go for an SUV or an SUC, and they have an combustion engine share of 85%. What do we do here?

Of course, we fully leverage the US-tailored SUVs we already build in the United States. We will offer high-performance and highly efficient combustion engines, including a brand-new V8.

We will also work on the other end, and not only launch our battery electric vehicles, but especially also focusing on the introduction of high-performance battery electric vehicles like AMG.EA, Ola referred to it earlier on. We will also benefit from our collaborations we have on site with Microsoft, Google, NVIDIA.

Of course, we clearly intend to increase our localization activities. As right now, in the United States, we build the EQ SUVs, but as well and with the majority, the GLE and the GLS.

In addition to that, we intend to also produce the GLC in the United States in the next years. That's our approach for the United States.

If you want to increase the resilience of the business system, only looking at the United States and at Europe is not good enough. You also have to look at all the other regions, and they are very heterogeneous.

We've grown nicely last year in those regions, and they're very heterogeneous, and there is not the one-size-fits-all approach for all of them. We apply flexible strategies tailored for each market.

If I say they are so heterogeneous, what do I mean? Let me give you an example when it comes to the products.

There are markets in Asia, the customers, formerly having driven luxurious sedans, now tend towards grand limousines, MPVs, etcetera. That's a segment we can definitely attack with our VLE and VLS.

We can also perfectly leverage our production network with CKD, SKD, and CBU, but also for the countries where we have free trade agreements with export from China. We will fully utilize the free trade agreements now in place, for example, for India.

In India, we are already the number one player of the premium brands, and we'll definitely build on that and increase our activities here going forward. Let me sum it up.

We have a great brand, backed by measurable customer satisfaction. We are ahead of the biggest launch and technology campaign we ever had.

We have regionally specific strategies to tackle profitable growth around the globe. Will it be easy to reach 2 million?

Definitely not, but we have the right ingredients to get that done. Before I hand over to Oliver Thöne to give you insights on how that looks in China, I would like to finish with a kind of sneak preview.

It's our new commercial for the GLC. From our perspective, it perfectly embodies what the future holds.

It's about performance, emotion, and customer excitement. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for your attention.

Good race, Kimi. È la macchina intensa.

Ciao, do you know where Kimi is? He's having his massage.

China. You have heard it probably 50 times, and it's on the top of all automotive thoughts right now.

My name is Oliver Thöne. I'm living in China since 1 year.

I'm leading the China business of Mercedes-Benz since 1 year, and it's my privilege to give you an update of what is the situation and, most importantly, what is the outlook. When we talk about the market in China, it's unmistakably the most dynamic market in the world.

We see pricing pressure, we see new competitors and entrants in nearly every segment, and thus heavy shifts in what used to be the structure of the market. Yes, Mercedes-Benz sales in China were down, but I invite you to look behind the figures.

The overall segment for premium vehicles was down 15% if you make a cut above 400,000 RMB. In that segment, Mercedes-Benz retained its number one position.

We are also leading in luxury sedans, and our customers enjoy among the highest residual values, and compared to our peers, we realize the highest transaction prices. How's that possible?

We have a still growing customer base in China, more than 7 million, and they are as digital-savvy as you hear it. It's a very specific way of living, and our customers, everybody spends up to 6 hours per day on their devices.

The device has a special role. You can do anything online.

Obviously, food and buying clothes is no surprise, but in China, you buy everything online, including cars. To cater for that demand, Mercedes-Benz has created a very specific app with a local flavor.

We have 2.4 million active users every month, and interact in a direct-to-customer channel. Again, we also achieved customer satisfaction number one for a second consecutive year.

Looking at '25, '25 was no year of growth, but it was a year where we calibrated our operations, we invested into the future, and we shaped the company for future success. 575,000 units were the result of deliberate sales steering to assure the highest possible net revenue quality.

We do that by upgrading vast parts of our portfolio, and thus providing good reasons for customers in investing in a Mercedes-Benz. Also, intelligence is updated with the update functionality Ola described, and I dig deeper into it in a moment.

Our customers in China are among the youngest in the world. In fact, 37 is the average age, and when acquiring an S-Class, it's 39.

That customer base is of huge importance, and to grow and access the younger customer base, we signed the world's best table tennis player, Wang Chuqin, last year to become brand ambassador. Behind the scenes, we have always been investing into the future because we believe in the future of China.

Now we were amongst the first to invest into Momenta. That Momenta, which has partnered now with many OEMs, we were the first in 2017 to invest into it.

We have deepened our partnership with ByteDance. You will see results in a moment.

We also ventured out to invest into a new company, Afari. Afari is an AI startup which is heading out to change AI in the cabin.

Now in such a year, it's utmost important to work on cost. 1 year ago, you have been promised cost targets, and the team is working day and night to deliver on this, and we are well on track.

Now you're most interested in what is the future looking like. Now China will remain the single most important market for Mercedes-Benz.

It is also fair to say competition won't go away. Pricing pressure in the foreseeable future won't go away.

That is why we defined a clear strategy around technology and products, a deeper localization, customer centricity, and everything underpinned by operational excellence. We follow through with a focused implementation.

We talked about the values which make a Mercedes a Mercedes-Benz, and you know them: It is safety, design, comfort, quality, and intelligence. This intelligence in China, it requires to have a local flavor, like the user interface I spoke on the app.

You have to cater for the specifics of that market. Ola described how Level 2++ point-to-point navigation is actually something which is becoming ever more standard in China, and the rest of the world is now catching up.

This journey, you have to be part of this industry. To do that, we teamed up with the best.

That is the advantage of MB.OS: It is partnership-agnostic. We are able to deliver a tailor-made UI, a deep integration with local software, and other technology players.

This might sound a bit abstract. Let me dissect it into two elements: one, intelligent cabin; second, advanced driving.

To not just talk about it, let's have a look what is possible. We do this, we integrate the Doubao intelligence and speech recognition systems with local software partners to have the best performance.

Why is that complex? There's not one Chinese spoken.

There's Mandarin, there's Cantonese, and there are very many specific local variants. My Western tongue is adding another edition to Mandarin.

The system needs to understand that, and that is possible with the power of AI. We took the CLA together with an engineer on a ride from Beijing to Shanghai, and let's take you on that ride.

[Foreign Language] What you have seen, the system understands my weak Chinese, it understands his, the local dialect. You can throw in a second command while I have just thrown in my command to have a massage.

That is possible with the compute and the power of AI. Now it is cool to show it here, but what is more important to us, 97% of our customers activate this feature just this January.

They love it, they post about it, and that is the first part. Now let's look at the second part, ADAS.

For ADAS, it is a very specific situation in each and every city in Shanghai in China, and we teamed therefore up with Momenta to bring Mercedes-Benz safety-proven intelligence in developing these systems, but team it up with an expert on the specifics for the market. Now allow me to narrate a video which we have filmed.

It is our chief software engineer in China, Wang, and the CEO of Momenta, Xudong, who sit in this car. Let's have another look.

You see here, they drive through the city. You have the hands off, and just the possibility of this car to identify complex traffic situations.

You have the smooth human-like rolling to the car in front of you. You kind of do not interrupt the driving attractiveness by harshness, and you can manage these systems and situations by the car automatically.

You identify traffic lights, and the car comes to a standstill, and it will accelerate. You see the cut-in of a vehicle and passenger crossing.

This is automotive safety Level D implemented by us together with Momenta. What is unique about it, we call it cooperative steering.

The machine and the driver interact, they don't fight each other. No one else in the industry can offer that level.

Why is that crucial? Today, to have that level of intelligence, you were forced to buy a new energy vehicle.

That is why Mercedes-Benz is going to launch a lot of new energy vehicles, but this unconditional intelligence, we will bring into the whole combustion lineup. We will be the first one to offer uncompromised intelligence and no question of drivetrain choice.

How will this journey start? We will launch the electric GLC, extended wheelbase, locally adapted vehicle with a lot of local supply chain ingredients.

It will extend. Today's imported GLE will be by the mid of the year a fully localized extended GLE, including all the intelligence I have described.

Of course, in the fourth quarter of this year, we will also have the S-Class. Now you saw the software stack in the CLA in action.

This software stack is constantly evolving. The GLC and the S-Class will have even updated iterations in the market.

By that, and by seven China-exclusive models, we are setting and laying the foundation for growth in China. All of our cars will offer more space, more comfort, and a more intelligence.

How is that possible? We have the so-called dual engine.

We have 2,000 engineers working, one part in Beijing directly at the TCC next to our BBAC manufacturing, and in Shanghai. That is absolutely crucial to live and breathe the pace of the Chinese automotive industry.

We deeply integrate with the local supply chain, and we can iterate, plus leverage the cost base, which is advantageous. At the same time, the Shanghai engine will continue to deliver software, and still this month, our customers will get the first OTA even for the MB.OS in the market just launched late last year.

Sometimes, these results transfer to the world, and the rear seat entertainment in the S-Class was in fact done in China for the world. The second part is production, and I know right now there's no factory picture without a robot, but you're well invited to visit our factory in China.

You will actually see a robot, including a humanoid if you wait until March. More than 6 million vehicles have been produced and 20 localized models.

We are constantly improving material cost position, and at the same time, the BBAC is the first zero-carbon plant certified in China. That is a testament to our green manufacturing promise.

This market requires absolute resilience in all parts of the operation. Therefore, we have strategic pricing, competitive, but not utterly aggressive.

We work with our dealer partners, which are of strategic importance. They are the direct interface to our end customers, and we enhance that by building up the aforementioned digital channels, we have a seamless digital and physical interface to our customers.

New retail formats, which were announced by Mathias, we will also have those rolling out in the second half of 2026 to more than three cities. As said before, delivering on cost targets is more than just a promise.

We are well on track to not only achieve, but to exceed the targets defined here 1 year ago, and we will continue to do though, including adjustments wherever necessary in our operations. Now the big question is, when will this growth kick in?

2026 is going to be a year of ramp-ups. We will have in the first half a lot of changeover in the factory, and later on, we will have in the second half ever more launches kicking in.

The environment, we foresee to remain competitive, but we are absolutely committed to turn every opportunity into growth: seven dedicated models for the Chinese market, and each of them 100% China-fit. This will assure the highest net revenue quality and, at the same time, capitalize on local cost.

Now talking about net revenue quality, talking about cost, I think, Harald, that is a good bridge to our CFO. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Oli. No pressure on, yeah, wonderful.

In that section, obviously, we're going to wrap up what you heard before. I want to give you an update on our cost efficiency measures where we are compared to what we said a year ago here.

Then, yeah, maybe have a glimpse on what it means in terms of a margin, cash generation moving forward, and return for our investors. Before doing that, just a one slide to outline what are the assumptions on which we make these forward-looking statements.

I will not try to entertain you or educate you on the macro and the market assumptions in detail. Them much better than I do.

All in all, you see what is the assumptions we take on the macro side of the things, and then what we derive from there is our market expectations. This is not sales expectations, this is market expectations.

In essence, we see constructive good momentum for the US. We see in terms of macro, and hence also in terms of market evolution, a more moderate or stable development in Europe.

I think we are realistic about a dynamic, very competitive market environment in China, hence we take a cautious view on China in terms of the market, and we see good grounds for the overseas to build momentum. On top of that, we all know lots of volatilities, lots of challenges and risks.

You see some on the slide, but maybe also one or the other of the opportunities, which you also see on the slide. Let's not dig deeper, I would say, on this one.

Let's now really go to the real stuff. Real stuff, you heard it loud and clear in terms of the plan of attack.

In 2025, starting from the 1.8, we explained why 2026 is a ramp-up year, more with a slow start in the Q1 and then building momentum in the H2. Clearly, with that unprecedented product firework kicking in, we will build momentum post-2026 into 2027, and very, very clearly, we have that target of back to 2 million units in mind.

Where is it we want to do it? Definitely in the US, in Europe, also in the overseas, on the back of the products, with a very strong position in the top end in the core.

Clearly, I think there's a message, Mathias, we want to attack and gain back market share. What does it mean for China?

You heard before that for 2026, we take a bit of a cautious view, which was in the guidance section where I said it's slightly down compared to 2025. Clearly here again, with the products coming, we want to hold the line in China and call that a 500,000 to 600,000 units in China.

Is that realistic? Is it unrealistic?

We think this is realistic. Why so?

We have many products coming to the market. If you think about the GLC electric, if you think about the electric C-Class, if you think about the electric E-Class obviously to come, these are products covering our EV white spot we're having today.

I think it's perfectly legitimate to go for that level of ambition in China. That's how we want to come up with the 2 million units on a worldwide basis.

Looking at the mix, well, on the top end, we clearly have a target of more than 15% top-end share in the midterm. You might say, 2025, you had 15% already.

Now you're telling me something about 2026 is 14% to 15%. That doesn't sound to me super ambitious.

I would suggest you keep in mind that at the same time, we grow the core pretty substantially. If you look in absolute numbers, that more than a 15% in the midterm means nothing less than more than 300,000 units in the top end, which I think is in terms of ambition, but also in terms of absolute size, clearly a leading position today, but also in the future.

That is a growth of around 15% of unit sales in the top-end segment, obviously supported by beautiful products, like the S-Class, the GLS to come, a super strong AMG product lineup in ICE and EVs, in particular in the mid-size segment, and obviously on the top of the crown with the AMG.EA to come. On the xEV side, 26 21% to 23%, I think I explained it before, in terms of the BEV share growing, maybe the plug-in in the entry segment migrating into the EV segment, that's why in 2026 you don't see that step-up in the absolute number in terms of xEV share yet, but clearly moving forward, we have the 40% xEV share in mind.

Again here, what does that mean? That means around 800,000 units in terms of xEV vehicles, and that means nothing else than doubling it compared to today.

If we talk about pricing environment, let me say very clearly, we command a price premium thanks to the very strong brand and the products today, and we will continue to do so also in the future. However, as part of our attack and as part of our game plan, we clearly defined that we want to step up, and we did already so, the competitiveness in terms of the pricing.

We adjust to market realities, we're ready to do so wherever needed, and with the efficiency work we concluded and we continue to do, we create the flexibility, the headroom to do so. Again, we're protecting and we're optimizing value, but we are opening opportunities for volume, and that is the key recipe why we also, next to the products, believe we can come back to the 2 million units in the midterm.

Over the midterm, that should then also stabilize pricing, and it should also enable ASPs to grow over the midterm. If then you think about the revenue side of things, 2026, I commented before, should be probably rather flattish.

If you look beyond that, clearly, the product fireworks, the sales will generate also revenue momentum. If you then think about the top-end evolution I mentioned just before, the mix evolution, but also the very strong growth potential in the core segment, you can expect in the revenue side, on top of the sales volume effect, also a favorable mix effect.

With this, we target a CAGR starting from 2026 of approximately 7% on revenues. Now let's switch gears a bit in terms of from the market, what does it mean in terms of the industrial base and how do we adjust the industrial base?

First, last year, we mentioned already, we're coming from a 2.8 million units sometime ago. In 2024, brought it down to 2.5 million units max production capacity.

What is the target in conjunction with the sales targets, I'm just talking about before? Obviously, you keep some flexibility.

That's why we said basically target 4 2.2 million by 2028. What did we accomplish in 2025?

We did adjust capacity in Europe and Germany by roughly 100,000 units. We did adjust capacity in China by around 120 units.

What are our additional activities we're doing moving forward in 2026, 2027? The GLB will end the production in Mexico and then will move to Kecskemét, so that is approximately 100,000 units.

We'll shift and gear up the Kecskemét facility, and thereby it will become the largest production site in Europe after the full ramp-up. On top, we still have optionality in remote location, and we also have flexibility depending on market evolution, to adjust further in China in case need be.

At the same time, that is a very flexible production network which can accommodate the entire product portfolio and changes on the demand side. As we also can run the EVs and the ICE from the same production lines, and that's a fundamental principle we're having today which we retain also in the future.

Overall, let's have a look on the localization, where we are and where we're heading to. Globally, we target to ramp it up further from a 60% to 70%, as Ola pointed out.

It's always a good principle to serve the markets from local, even more so, however, under the geopolitical framework we're facing in these days. What does it mean by the key regions?

If you see the US on the left-hand side of the chart here, clearly we have a target to serve more than 50% of the demand in the US by local production. Yes, clearly, there is the potential to expand the production capacity further.

What other product could be better suited to do so than next-generation GLC to do so? Which means US is and will be the home of mid- and large-sized SUVs, serving the local markets, but then also serving Europe and the overseas markets in terms of the SUVs.

If you think about Europe, majority of the European demand is being served already today from local production. Europe, I would say, remains the home of the top end and the sedans.

This is where the craftsmanship is at home. This serves the demand in Europe.

The GLB shift I mentioned already, which is coming from Mexico to Europe. Clearly, it is the home of the top ends and the sedans which get exported from Europe on a global scale.

Then looking at China, clearly more than 80% in terms of local supply from the local production. This year, by the mid of 2026, we will localize the GLE long wheelbase in China.

Next to the market presence, it offers strong cost advantages, and it means that the imports are basically limited to the top-end products coming to China. At this stage, we do not foresee to export from China to Europe or the US.

Switching gears more to the cost side. Production costs being first chapter in here.

What did we accomplish? In the last years between 2022, 2024, we did achieve already 10% production cost down.

We didn't stop there. Last year, we said we want to go for another 10% between 2024 and 2027 in terms of production cost measured as cost per unit.

I'm happy to report here that in 2025, 4% out of this 10 has been accomplished already. Obviously sitting in the numbers we were looking at before in the first section.

What are remaining levers for '26 and beyond to get to this 10%? It is the adjustment of capacities, it is to work on the efficiencies, on the HPVs in the factories, but also in the logistics, to work on the labor cost.

All levers are being pulled across the entire production network to step up the efficiency level. The other key one obviously is the switching gears, the moving east, and the Kecskemét facility offers significant factor cost advantages in the vicinity of 70%.

We are leveraging these, and by stepping up the production capacity over there, it means the low-cost share in Europe will double from 15% to 30% by 2027. Very, very important chapter obviously, given the size of the bill of material, is the material cost and the material cost reduction.

What did we say last year? We want to reduce material cost by 8% between '24 and 2027.

I think good news. In 2025, we did already 2%.

We all know that supply chain is in a tough situation obviously as well. Being able to pull off 2% here, I think was a very good achievement.

We clearly have these 8% in mind for 2027. What we added, given the competitive environment and also to create ourselves even more headroom in this competitive market environment, is to step up that effort beyond 2027 and to go from the 8 to an even higher number, i.e., 10 post-2027.

This is what we embedded now into our plans. How do we attack that?

Leverage even more the global footprint, extend the best-cost country sourcing. Clearly, China opens up sourcing opportunities for China, but also for the rest of the world.

Now we have a clear game plan how to pull off these potentials. We add new participants into the supply base, adding new partners with fresh ideas and fresh mindsets.

Not only obviously working on the supply chain side, also working internally, and that means also to challenge the design and the specification. We are doing pull forward, more standardization and design-to-cost initiatives internally, but also jointly with the suppliers.

The other chapter, I think, you're very interested is how about this famous BEV margin and this question of BEV and ICE margin parity? Maybe, I think, some update in this respect and news to share here.

We now look into the products entering into the market, such as the CLA, but now let me pick the GLC as an example. We now know the bill of material of that vehicle coming to market.

We made substantial progress on the battery cost, on the drivetrain cost. We know what it is at the start of the production.

I think, good news to report that on the battery side, we're 30% down compared to predecessor products, with a lot of efficiencies, economies of scale, LFP at work, the entire tool set. Also the entire vehicle as such comes with a lower variable cost bill of material compared to predecessor products.

We don't stop there at start of production, and I think that is the new element, if you remember what I just said before on the material cost. We'll continue the journey in terms of fundamental cost saving as we go through the life cycle of the product.

If I factor that into account, and I factor also all cost, including the CO2 benefit created by the EV vehicle, which I think is a legitimate thing to do, by the way, others are doing it as well, I would say, clearly, we do see a path now to get to margin parity if I take a GLC electric and compare it with a GLC combustion, if I take a C-Class electric and I compare it with the C-Class combustion, if I take the electric E-Class coming with a current E-Class combustion, we see a pass to margin parity towards the end of the decade between BEV and ICE. Investments: I think I talked already earlier today about cars achieving investment peak in 2025.

You see it here on the chart, 12.7. I think with a very disciplined investment approach, in particular on the PPE side, really enabling this tech stack on the R&D side.

So 12.7 is clearly the peak. You see the profiling down '26 and '27.

What I think is the very important message here, we readied that tech stack, and we now can bring it, we can now proliferate it into the entire product portfolio. It's not only about the CLA, or it is not only about the GLA.

No, it also goes into the S-Class, into the GLE, into the GLS, to come. Entire product portfolio will benefit from that leading tech stack moving forward.

That's message number one. Message number two, you can also see here on the chart that looking at the vehicle architectures, the peak also on the architecture side in terms of ICE and EVs is behind us in terms of the investment peak.

That gives us a lot of comfort that we can command that investment coming down, at the same time, retaining a focus and the top-end emphasis in terms of investment and the core, which you see on the bottom of the chart here clearly, which illustrates what are we investing in top end and core, obviously where the higher-level margin sits. Then fixed cost: Well, 2019 to 2024, 19% accomplished already.

We didn't rest there. We set ourselves another 10% between 2024 and 2027.

Good news, I would say, 2025, we achieved already 7%. You could say, well, that's not that much to go anymore, but obviously the last mile is always getting the more difficult.

We have a clear plan how to do that: a very, very strict use of attrition, not replacing people leaving as a function of attrition. Then the NLPP personal cost reduction program we talked earlier today, will kick in with the benefits in '26 and then 2027.

We address also structural issues when you think about the management positions in terms of span and layers and dual roles. We have a pretty massive outsourcing ongoing to best-cost countries or even handover the activities to external service providers.

Another example is the divestment of the own retail in Germany. We talked about the integration of the financial services customer front end with the sales and customer organization unit.

Obviously, each and every area is working hard on standardization, digitalization, and extensive use of AI across the entire business. What does it mean in terms of margin perspective and trajectory?

Clearly, a year ago, I think when we were standing here, we said we target in 2027 following a double-digit margin. Did that ambition change?

No. Why?

As when we said that last year, we were pretty explicit that this is pre-tariffs. We all know where we ended up on the tariff side of things.

Since then, I think significant evolution in terms of the furthering of the competitive nature in the market. We are here confirming an 8% to 10% margin target in the midterm, including 150 to 200 basis points dilution from tariffs and the adverse FX effects we were talking about earlier today.

How can we come from a 3 to 5 in 2026, where I think in the break, I already got quite a lot of questions, what it means and the like? Let me take you, as I took you from the '24 to the '25, from the '25 to the '26, let me take you from that '26 guidance, 3 to 5, to how is it possible to get to an 8 to 10 in the midterm?

Let's start first with some headwinds again. The more we grow, we also grow the ambition in the US, it means the tariff impact will go up a bit further, 150 basis points '26, going more towards the 200 over time.

The FX, from the assumptions that I shared with you a bit earlier, we don't see it going away. All in all, FX and tariffs basically constitute another headwind of around 1%.

The entire volume, structure, pricing, EV ramp-up is a super important lever, obviously. Going back to the 2 million units, but you might be surprised that maybe in this entire equation, it is probably something around 1.5%.

Where is the rest coming from? It is the efficiencies at work.

This is the efficiencies of roughly 4%, which will not only bring us up to that level, but also will make the company even more resilient and waterproof. What does it mean?

Clearly, we believe in the products and the plan to attack the markets to go to the 2 million units. In terms of what's underpinning that margin expansion, it is clearly the efficiencies at work, proven so far.

I think on the back of that, we're confident we can deliver on that moving forward. If you look on the margin side in terms of this profile, clearly ramping up, what does it mean on the cash generation?

You can see the chart on the investment side. The investment coming down, depreciation going up, it means cash conversion turns favorable moving forward.

Not only at cars, but over time also on the van side. Let's have a look what that means.

Maybe another short recap before doing so in terms of cash generation track record. If you go back to 2019 till 2025, that's more than 50 billion of cash generated, free cash flow generated.

We returned more than 30 billion to you via divi and share buyback. On top, you got the Daimler Truck shares from the spin-off.

That basically yields a total shareholder return of more than 130%. If you look at 2025, that is a TSR of around 20%.

I use this example, I stressed last year. If you invested in 2019, €100 into Daimler shares at the point in time, and if you count everything, the divi, the share buyback, the Daimler Truck shares, and, when all of the cash streams coming to you, that is the equivalent of €230 today.

I think it's a reasonable IRR. If you think at the same time that the net industrial liquidity stepped up from 11 to more than 30 billion, 32 billion, I think you might read from the chart that cash generation matters to us.

Now what to do with cash generation and cash returns? Clearly, we have the capital allocation framework in place.

We are committed to that framework, we're committed to the shareholder returns. This capital allocation framework and the application of it, I'm going to take you through that in a minute, is not a demonstration of the commitment to that framework only, it is also a signal in terms of our confidence into the business, into the operational, into the financial profile we're talking about in this chapter before.

Very clearly, the cash generated, the free cash flow generated and the cash proceeds generated will serve the divi, will serve the share buybacks, and in the cash generation, obviously, also M&A starts to matter. Before I talk about that, let me share a word on the divi, as we didn't do that before.

You could see, I think, from the press release that we propose to the AGM a dividend of €3.50 for 2025. How do we think about that?

How do we come up with this proposal? Clearly, on the one side, the divi should express the business profile and the business evolution, which we analyzed in the section earlier today.

That's why the divi for 2025 needs to sit below the one of 2024, which was €4.30. At the same time, we do understand and we do know that sustainability of dividend also matters to you as a shareholder a lot.

There's a third dimension: As we talk about '26 as a ramp-up year, as we lay out a very clear plan how we move forward in terms of top-line expansion, come back to 2 million units, come back to margin expansion, come back to higher cash flow generation moving forward, that is also a message in terms of the divi of €3.50. Please read this footnote in conjunction with the divi proposal of €3.50.

Now a bit more in detail for 2026 in terms of cash generation and cash return, what can you expect? If you read my lips a bit careful from the guidance section, you can see an industrial free cash flow for 2026 in excess of 4 billion.

Very clearly, we have the potentials on the M&A side. I talked about Athlon.

We have the own retail in Germany, where we're ramping up the wave of the divestments in 2026. Then, we clearly have another little asset, which is called Daimler Truck stake.

Happy to report here at this stage that a share of that has been reclassified in the financial statements to come out, and latest when you see them early March, in assets held for sale. That means nothing else, our firm determination to be in market in 2026.

If you size these opportunities, I would say, give it a two. Cash generation altogether could be around a six.

What to do with it? Divi of €3.50 translates into a cash-out of 3.4 billion.

I explained to you earlier that the share buyback launched in 2025, we did already 300 in 2025, so that leaves us with 1.7 to go in 2026. On the back of the cash generation strengths, I think that fuels the perspective to launch a successor to the 2025 SBB program also in 2026.

Just for the sake of the argument, assume same order of magnitude. Then obviously, it will come after the first one, after the 1.7.

Give that on the chart you see a 1 to 2. That means basically around 6 billion of cash generated from the industrial business and M&A and approximately the potential of 6 billion return to shareholders in 2026.

At current share price and market cap, I think that would constitute a double-digit return, at the same time, retaining a very, very healthy balance sheet of 32 billion. I think it's time to wrap it up.

I think you got the details of the attack plan on which we're moving full speed ahead. We are confident about that plan.

Why are we confident? Is the leading tech stack, which now gets proliferated into the entire product portfolio.

You have these incredible vehicles coming to market with an unprecedented launch campaign '26, '27, creating momentum. You heard loud and clear how we pull all levers to leverage the brand and the products in the market to conquer the markets with a target, a clear target, back to 2 million.

You heard a comprehensive game plan how to attack China in terms of what the customers expect from us, in terms of the tech stack, in terms of the products, in terms of the cost base, and also how we leverage the local capabilities, intelligence in terms of the R&D. You heard as well a fully engaged and motivated team from the shop floor to the boardroom with the determination to win.

You heard about discipline when it comes to cost and investment, supporting higher level margin and cash generation, which should come back as cash returns to you. That is the reason why we are confident, and we welcome you to join us in that confidence.

Thank you very much.

Yeah. Thank you very much, everybody.

This was the presentation part of today. Thank you for joining us here in person in Sindelfingen, and all of you on the screens for joining us digitally.

Thank you, Ola, Harald, Mathias, Olli, for your presentations. We will see all four board members back on stage for a Q&A session in roughly 12 minutes at 10:45 sharp.

This is still a public Q&A, it will be broadcasted. However, only registered analysts, investors, and journalists will be able to ask questions.

See you back in 13 minutes.