german carmaker mercedesbenz reported a jump in profits for 2022 on friday thanks to strong demand for highend and electric models but warned of a sluggish start to the new year in europe net profit jumped by 34 percent to 148 billion euros 157 billion last year the stuttgartbased group said while revenues were up 12 percent yearonyear to 150 billion euros the earnings boost was down to a sharpened focus on premium cars and vans which tend to have higher profit margins combined with tight cost control mercedesbenz said in a statement the group sold more than two million cars in 2022 a fivepercent increase on the year before driven by strong demand for the sclass model and the allelectric eqs looking ahead mercedes warned that the global economy faced an exceptional degree of uncertainty citing the war in ukraine the fallout from covid restrictions in key market china and higher interest rates among the challenges ahead in europe incoming orders are more sluggish it warned in china the fourthquarter covid19 effect has led to a spill over impact on sentiment in the first quarter of 2023 while demand in the united states was on a good level the group expects revenues to remain stable in 2023 while pretax profits will likely be slightly below the previous years level