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Daimler

Known for Mercedes-Benz, Smart and AMG

Daimler is a publicly listed auto manufacturer headquartered in Germany. In 2019 it had US$193.326 billion in revenue and sales of over 2.3 million vehicles. Daimler’s largest area of sales and operations is Europe, but it also has a large sales and manufacturing presence in China.

Summary

Daimler has a performance score of 8.1 out of 20 against a well below 2-degree pathway. This is lower than Daimler’s 2019 performance score of 11.5, when it was assessed against the less ambitious 2-degree pathway.

Daimler’s “Ambition 2039” strategy has set the goal of all its new passenger cars being carbon neutral by 2039. By 2030, 50 percent of Daimler’s new global vehicles sold will be “electric”. The nature of this electrification will be key with full battery electric being far preferable to plug-in hybrids. In November 2019, Daimler set 1.5-degree-aligned science-based targets for its scope 1 and 2 emissions (from direct operations) and scope 3 emissions (from outside direct operations). This increased its score for this module from 4 percent in its 2019 assessment to 13 percent (out of a possible 15 percent) in its 2020 assessment. Daimler did not score 15 percent as its target does not cover all vehicles.

Total score: 8.1/20
Assessment Note: Daimler received a full ACT assessment in 2019.

Performance module name	Performance module score	Rank (0-30)
Targets	2.0 /3	#7
Material Investment	0.4 /0.4	#1
Intangible Investment	1.2 /2.4	#10
Sold product performance	2.4 /7	#23
Management	1.1 /2.2	#10
Supplier	0.6 /1.2	#4
Client	0.0 /0.8	#15
Policy Engagement	0.1 /1.2	#22
Business Model	0.4 /1.8	#10

As with several of the European brands assessed, Daimler is making good progress in reducing manufacturing emissions; these have reduced from 0.9 tonnes to 0.7 tonnes per vehicle between 2014 and 2019. Daimler also has one of the highest expenditure figures on low-carbon research and development (R&D) per vehicle produced of the companies assessed. Daimler does not disclose low-carbon R&D spend in a sufficient level of detail to achieve the 100 percent score, although based on information available, it is almost certain that the company far exceeds the 5 percent threshold for this R&D spend seen as necessary for the low-carbon transition.

Despite its good progress Daimler is taking a demand-led approach and intends to continue offering all types of powertrain options. This is evidenced by its low-carbon vehicle share (1.8 percent against the 5.9 percent required by its decarbonisation pathway) and internal combustion engine efficiency where it scores just 11 percent due to poor progress. Daimler should do more to incentivise customers to switch to low-carbon vehicles and does not have strong new business models to aid its transition to the low-carbon economy. This will need to improve if Daimler is to achieve its science-based targets.

See results for

2019
2021

More about the company

Headquarters: Germany
Ownership structure: Publicly listed
Revenue (2019): US$193.326 billion
Number of vehicles sold (2019): 2,344,936
Website: https://www.daimler.com/