By the end of this decade, the German luxury carmaker – Mercedes-Benz is planning to terminate its ICE-powered lineup
Mercedes-Benz has a line-up that comprises of a lot of fancy cars. Some of them are loud, some are fast, and a few are fast but not loud. Well, the silent yet fast ones are those powered by electricity. The carmaker has achieved perfection in developing EVs, and it has announced lately, it won’t be selling cars with IC engines after 2030. The end of this decade will mark the termination of IC engines from Mercedes-Benz’s portfolio.
The company has secured a budget of 40 billion Euros for research & development of electric powertrains. As of now, the brand is targeting to have 25 per cent sales from its electric vehicle range, which it is expecting to grow to 50 per cent by 2025. Furthermore, the German marque will not develop any IC engine compatible architecture after 2025. It will roll out three new electric vehicle architectures by 2025.
Three electric platforms coming from Mercedes-Benz are MB.EA, AMG.EA, and VAN.EA. The MB.EA platform will be used for all sorts of mid to large size cars. It will be a scalable platform and will work as the spine for the company’s EV portfolio. Next on the list is AMG.EA, which will only underpin the electric AMG vehicles. The VAN.EA will be used for light commercial vehicles and vans.
The brand is serious about its electrification plans. And to achieve the targeted results, the German marque will have to set up manufacturing units with a total production capacity of 20 Gigawatt hours. Therefore, Mercedes-Benz is considering setting up eight Gigafactories in a planned manner alongside 9 battery system plants.
Another key consideration in this pilot project is the ‘Plug and Charge’ system, which will be introduced with the launch of the EQS electric sedan. As of now, Mercedes-Benz has a network of Mercedes me Charge, comprising of 5.3 lakh charging points across the globe. Plus, the carmaker is also making Shell’s Recharge charging point accessible to its buyers.
Well, there are 30,000 of them on cards and will cover North America, Europe and China. Apart from these charging networks, the carmaker will also introduce its own premium charging facilities.