Mercedes has declared its new EV plan, and by implementing it, the firm wants to go all-electric by the end of the 2030 where market conditions allow.
According to the new EV plan, Mercedes will invest over €40 billion (Rs. 3.5 lakh crores) into battery electric vehicles between 2022 and 2030.
At the same time, the carmaker will reduce investments into combustion engines and plug-in hybrid technologies by 80 percent by 2026. The plan is to have EVs contribute to 50 percent of total sales by 2025.
Cost Optimisation
Mercedes will bank on common battery platforms and scalable electric architectures to reduce costs, and to improve profitability, the brand will launch more AMG and Maybach models. It will also take more direct control over pricing and sales.
The company, which will have EVs in all segments by next year, will, from 2025 onwards, launch 3 electric-only architectures which will cover all bases, i.e., from cars to vans.
The 3 architectures will be – MB.EA (passenger cars), AMG.EA (performance cars) and VAN.EA (vans and light commercial vehicles).
To price its vehicles competitively, the company will be making significant efforts, including the acquisition of UK-based electric motor company YASA through which Mercedes will gain access to unique axial flux motor technology.
Further, Mercedes will have the expertise to develop ultra-high-performance motors too, and China is expected to play a key role in speeding up the Mercedes-Benz electrification strategy.
More & More Batteries
While the company already has plans to install 9 battery systems plants, under the new EV plan, it will set up 8 gigafactories for producing cells since it will need a battery capacity of more than 200 Gigawatt hours (GWh) in the future.
Mercedes has also said that it will join forces with GROB (a German firm that deals with battery production and automation systems) to strengthen its battery production capacity.
Apart from continuously working to increase range during the production lifecycle, Mercedes will partner with companies to make batteries that give ‘unprecedented range’ and ‘even shorter charging times.
Basically, the firm wants to achieve a single-digit figure for kWh per 100 km and is already developing the Vision EQXX, an EV with a real-world range of more than 1000 km. It will be unveiled in 2022, and its technology will be used in future Mercedes EVs.
Charging Solutions
Mercedes EV plans also cover charging. In conjunction with the EQS launch, Plug & Charge, the firm’s initiative that eliminates authentication and payment processing, will go live later this year.
The brand currently has more than 5.3 lakh AC and DC charging points worldwide under the Mercedes me Charge network, but will work with Shell to add 30,000 additional charge points by 2025 in Europe, North America, and China.
Mercedes says premium charging stations with “top-notch facilities” will also be established in Europe.