Give up electric cars?Mercedes-Benz: Never gave up, just postponed the goal for five years

Recently, news spread on the Internet that “Mercedes-Benz is giving up electric vehicles.”  On March 7, Mercedes-Benz responded: Mercedes-Benz’s firm determination to electrify the transformation remains unchanged. In the Chinese market, Mercedes-Benz will continue to promote electrification transformation and bring customers a rich selection of luxury products.

But it is undeniable that Mercedes-Benz has lowered its esta

blished 2030 electrification transformation goal.  In 2021, Mercedes-Benz announced with a high profile that from 2025 onwards, all newly launched cars will only adopt pure electric designs, with new energy sales (including hybrid and pure electric) accounting for 50%; by 2030, all-electric vehicles will be achieved Sale.

However, now Mercedes-Benz electrification has hit the brakes. In February this year, Mercedes-Benz announced that it would postpone its electrification target by five years and expects that by 2030, new energy sales will account for 50%. It also assured investors that it will continue to improve its internal combustion engine models and plans to continue producing internal combustion engine vehicles within the next ten years.

This is a decision based on factors such as its own electric vehicle development falling short of expectations and weak market demand for electric vehicles.  In 2023, Mercedes-Benz’s global sales will be 2.4916 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 1.5%. Among them, electric vehicle sales were 470,000 units, accounting for 19%. It can be seen that oil trucks are still the absolute main force in sales.

Although sales have increased slightly, Mercedes-Benz’s net profit in 2023 fell 1.9% from the previous year to 14.53 billion euros.

Compared with oil trucks, which are easy to sell and can contribute steadily to the group’s profits, the electric car business still requires continued investment. Based on the consideration of improving profitability, it is reasonable for Mercedes-Benz to slow down its electrification process and restart the research and development of internal combustion engines.