Mercedes-Benz stops development of electric platform
(Frankfurt) The German manufacturer Mercedes-Benz will stop a platform project dedicated to the development of high-end electric models, the financial effort no longer being worth it at a time when the electric market is slipping.
The luxury car maker initially wanted to create a new production line to assemble high-end, electrically powered models like the S-Class and GLE from 2028.
Production will ultimately continue to be organized on one line “so that it is flexible in terms of drive systems” propelling the engine, a group spokesperson told AFP, confirming published information Monday by the German daily Handelsblatt.
This will result in vehicles equipped “with both a fully electric engine and a high-tech combustion engine” and this “until the 2030s”, added this source.
Objective: “sustainably exploit efficiency gains between new and existing series”.
Conventional and electric motor models will thus continue to be built flexibly on a single line at the historic Sindelfingen factory.
Given the current weak sales of electric models, the financial cost to be borne for the new infrastructure dedicated to electric models was no longer justified, according to Handelsblatt.
Mercedes-Benz boss Ola Källenius estimated in February that the star brand's electric and plug-in hybrid cars will have a share of around 50% in total production by the end of the current decade. .
In 2021, the group trumpeted its desire to reach this 50% mark by 2025.
“The pace of transformation is determined by market conditions and the wishes of our customers,” explained a group spokesperson.
Mercedes-Benz saw its profitability plummet last year and must look for savings to turn things around.
The same pressure is weighing on its American competitor Tesla, which announced at the end of April a melting of more than half of its net profit in the first quarter and announced that it wanted to quickly produce a low-cost electric vehicle.
