Mercedes Accelerates Pace To Stop Selling ICE By Decade’s End

The company will be launching additional platforms designed for electric vehicles in order to achieve its EV-only goal.

By: Andrei Nedelea

Jul 14, 2021 at 1:03pm ET

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Mercedes is already well on its way to having a complete lineup of electric vehicles. It already sells the EQA, EQB, EQC, EQV and the EQS will soon join them in a few months’ time, followed by another few models within the next two years; the creation of a complete EQ lineup that offers EV alternatives to traditional models is well underway.

This puts it in a great position to achieve its stated goal of selling only electric vehicles come the year 2030. And it plans to increase the speed with which it will transition from ICE to EV, according to statements made by a company official to Automobilwoche.

The source says Mercedes will soon announce the introduction of additional platforms for its electric vehicles. These are expected to be rolled out in 2024, along with Mercedes’ own proprietary operating system, which could be a replacement for today’s MBUX or just a new version of it.

Mercedes has widely embraced electrification, offering not only electric models, but plug-in hybrid powertrain options for most of its core models. However, these may be dropped as well come 2030 because after that year the manufacturer doesn’t want to have a single ICE vehicle in its lineup.

But will Mercedes simply stop building ICE even if there will still be demand for it? We’re pretty sure move to electric only won’t be applied everywhere the same. In other words, while Mercedes may achieve its goal of selling only EVs after 2030 in Europe and North America, it may prolong the transition in other markets where buyers will still be looking for gasoline and diesel vehicles.

Audi, for instance, is a manufacturer that has announced it will stop developing new internal-combustion engines after 2026 and that it will cease selling them after 2033. However, there is a small asterisk there, or a rather large one that announces Audi will still sell ICE in China and possibly other markets after 2033; Mercedes will probably adopt a similar strategy.