Mercedes-Benz this Thursday revealed an ambitious plan to become 100% electric by the end of the decade, "where market conditions allow".
In a process that foresees to accelerate several goals that had already been announced previously in the “Ambition 2039” strategy, Mercedes-Benz confirms that it will start offering a battery-powered vehicle in all segments from 2022 and that from 2025 on all models in the range will have a 100% electric version.
For the same year, Mercedes-Benz announces another important decision: "from 2025 onwards, all platforms launched will be for electric only", and for that time three new platforms are planned: MB.EA, AMG.EA and VAN.EA.
The first (MB.EA) will be aimed at medium and large passenger cars. The AMG.EA, as the name suggests, will serve as the basis for future electric sports cars in Affalterbach. Finally, the VAN.EA platform will be used for light commercial vehicles.
Electric for all tastes
After the launches of EQA, EQB, EQS and EQV, all in 2021, Mercedes-Benz is preparing to launch in 2022 the EQE sedan and the corresponding SUV of the EQE and EQS.
When all these launches are completed, and with the EQC already in place, the Stuttgart brand will have eight fully electric cars in the passenger car market.
Also noteworthy are the two variants planned for the EQS: a sportier variant, with the AMG signature, and a more luxurious variant with the Maybach signature.
In addition to all this, plug-in hybrid proposals with extensive electrical autonomy, such as the new Mercedes-Benz C 300 and that we have just tested, will continue to play a very important role in the brand's strategy.
Margins are to keep despite the biggest investment
“The shift to electric vehicles is picking up speed, particularly in the luxury segment, where Mercedes-Benz belongs. The tipping point is approaching and we will be ready as markets shift to 100% electric at the end of this decade”, said Ola Källenius, CEO of Daimler and Mercedes-Benz.
Ola Källenius, CEO of Daimler and Mercedes-BenzThis step marks a profound capital readjustment. By managing this rapid transformation while safeguarding our profit goals, we will ensure Mercedes-Benz's long-term success. Thanks to our skilled and motivated workforce, I am convinced that we will be successful in this exciting new era.
Mercedes-Benz will invest more than 40 billion euros in the development of new electric vehicles and confirmed that it will maintain the margins it had drawn in 2020, even though these goals were based on the “assume of selling 25% of hybrid vehicles and electric in 2025”.
Now, the German brand believes that this type of vehicle will already represent around 50% of the market share in that same year.
To maintain profit margins in the new electric age, Mercedes-Benz will try to “increase net income” for every copy sold and boost sales of Maybach and AMG models. To this, we still have to add sales through digital services, which will increasingly become a trend for brands.
Based on this, the standardization of the range with regard to platforms is also essential, as it will allow for an important reduction in costs.
Eight gigafactories "on the way"
To support this transition almost entirely to electricity, Mercedes-Benz announced the construction of eight new gigafactories around the world (one of them is known to be in the US and four in Europe), which will have a production capacity of 200 GWh.Mercedes-Benz next-generation batteries will be “highly standardized and suitable for use in more than 90% of Mercedes-Benz cars and vans”, with the goal for increasing density being to offer “unprecedented autonomy and times of shorter load”.
Vision EQXX will have a range of over 1000 km
The Vision EQXX prototype, which Mercedes-Benz will present in 2022, will be a kind of showcase for all of this and promises to be the electric with the most autonomy ever and also the most efficient.
In addition to showing a teaser image, the German brand also confirmed that this model will have a “real world” autonomy of over 1000 km and a consumption on the highway of more than 9.65 km per kWh (in other words, a consumption of less than 10 kWh/100 km)
The Vision EQXX development team has “specialists from the F1 High Performance Powertrain (HPP) division” of Mercedes-Benz, who insisted on stressing that greater autonomy was not achieved simply by using a larger capacity battery.