Gasgoo (Shanghai, August 25)—Benz officially launches its new E-class car into market on August 22th. Based on the successful C-class vehicle, new E-class car is placed high hopes by the market. However, new E-class car has to face an embarrassing situation that luxury C-class car market is stuck in a bottleneck and encounters a decreasing market share.

Statistics show that in luxury C-class market, BMW 5 has a total sales volume of 69,609 units in the first half of 2016, decreasing 3.9% with last year. Audi ranks second with 69,037 units, decreasing 4.7%. Benz E-class vehicle sells 19,383 units, decreasing 34.6%. The luxury C-class market faces an accelerating decline in July, in which BMW 5 ranks first and decreases 2.6%. Benz new E-class vehicle is priced at RMB 436,800 to 499,800, in which E300L is priced at RMB 474,800 to 499,800, higher than E200L’s guiding price RMB 429,000. Compared with the declining price of many models, Benz E-class has no obvious price competitiveness.

Analyses point out that, similar to ordinary B-class market, luxury C-class market is also challenged by SUVs. Under such circumstances, along with fierce competition from Audi, BMW, Benz new E-class vehicle’s future expectation may fall flat.

What’s more, domestic Benz E meets “steel body” scandal just one day after being launched. Domestic version model uses steel to make body, while in Germany and other mainstream markets, the bodies are made by aluminum. Currently, the whole luxury market regards aluminum body as standard configuration, and Jaguar’s newly launched model XFL even puts aluminum body as a selling point. In fact, compared with aluminum body, steel body is inferior in terms of safety, driving control, body weight and fuel consumption.