Mercedes ups investments in combustion technology

Mercedes-Benz is far behind schedule in terms of EV sales. As the general economic and regulatory conditions do not promise a boost, the Group changed course at the beginning of the year. Mercedes CEO Ola Källenius cancelled his own EV target for 2030, announcing that the company would be running on two tracks (electric & combustion engine) for longer than previously planned. It was previously unclear to what extent the Stuttgart-based company would reinvest in combustion technologies as part of this. Kallenius now told the German business magazine Wirtschaftswoche that Mercedes aims to revamp the hybridised combustion engine.

All “relevant combustion engines and transmission combinations” will comply with new regulations such as EU7 or China 7 to ensure the engines are always at the highest technological level. Nevertheless, Mercedes is sticking to its investments in electric cars, says Källenius. Rumours that the next electric S-Class has been discontinued are false. The plan for constructing battery cell factories also remains in place: “In total, we will still need eight gigafactories or a battery capacity of 200 gigawatt hours.” Only later than previously planned. This “later” also includes a recently announced cutback at Automotive Cells Company (ACC), the battery cell joint venture of Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz and TotalEnergies. ACC is pausing construction work on its battery cell plants in Kaiserslautern, Germany, and Termoli, Italy.

With his commitment to the electric S-Class, Källenius also responds to a rumour that became public in mid-May, according to which Mercedes is no longer developing its ‘MB.EA-Large’ electric platform. From 2028, the Stuttgart-based company wanted to electrify the new generation of its largest saloons and SUVs based on this architecture. Citing four insiders, Handelsblatt wrote that the development has been put on ice. It would cost Mercedes “investments that are at least in the mid-single-digit billion range.” Handelsblatt did not deny that the electric S-Class was coming but raised the question of which platform it would be based on. Insiders reported in May that, contrary to the original plans, the future large luxury electric vehicles will now be partly based on the existing 400-volt EVA2 architecture in the production process. According to earlier rumours, the EVA2 could switch to an 800-volt system. However, this has not been confirmed.

Mercedes’ ‘electric only’ plans (in combination with the platform plans) date back to 2021, when Källenius announced the goal of only selling purely electric new cars from 2030 if possible – Mercedes wanted to become an electric brand wherever “market conditions allow.” Since February, the new direction sounds completely different. “The company expects xEV sales to reach up to 50 per cent of total sales in the second half of the decade. The Stuttgart-based company refers to BEVs and PHEVs as “xEVs.” That means that instead of almost 100 per cent BEV share in 2030, the car manufacturer assumes that the share of BEV and PHEV in total sales will be no more than half by the end of the decade. In an interview with Wirtschaftswoche, Källenius now speaks of 50 per cent electric cars and 50 per cent hybrids, which in Mercedes jargon are referred to as high-tech combustion engines.

wiwo.de (in German)