Mercedes-Benz says will go all-electric by 2025

PanARMENIAN.Net - Mercedes-Benz will shift its focus entirely to electric vehicles in 2025 and be prepared to sell nothing but electric cars by 2030, the company said Thursday, July 22, adding a caveat that the transition depends on “market conditions”, The New York Times reports.

Mercedes thus joined a growing list of companies including General Motors, Stellantis and Renault that have declared their intention to hasten the demise of internal combustion engines in favor of battery-powered vehicles with no tailpipe emissions.

Increasingly, they have little choice. The European Union will effectively ban new cars with internal combustion engines in 2035, while Britain, Norway and other countries have also set expiration dates for vehicles that run on fossil fuels.

“We want to be people to make it happen,” Mr. Källenius told reporters Thursday, “not just go with the flow.”

Mercedes said it would invest 40 billion euros, or $47 billion, on electric cars, vans and light commercial vehicles by 2030. In 2025, the company will introduce three new electric vehicle platforms — collections of components and technology that can be shared among different models — and will no longer develop platforms for internal combustion engines.