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Mercedes-Benz plans to invest billions of dollars in modernising its factories in China, Germany and Hungary over the next few years to accelerate the transition to electric cars and reduce emissions, according to Automobilwoche.

The move comes after the European Parliament formally passed a bill in Strasbourg to halt the sale of fossil fuel cars in Europe in 2035, which would ban the sale of new fuel vehicles in Europe after 2035. Mercedes-Benz will also start work at the Rastat plant in the coming months and will begin production of the first model of the compact car platform MMA from 2024, when the number of models will be reduced from seven to four. At the same time, if market conditions permit, full electrification will be ready by 2030.

In the domestic market, first-tier luxury brands, including Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi, are accelerating the overall electrification transformation, among which Mercedes-Benz is advancing relatively fast in the electrification transformation, but it is a pity that most of Mercedes-Benz electric cars are oil-to-electric products, and the price of pure electric products is also relatively high, Mercedes-Benz electric cars are not outstanding in the domestic market.

Earlier, there was news in the market that Mercedes-Benz was considering abandoning the gas-to-electric model and abolishing the EQ brand as early as 2024. Mercedes-Benz insiders say this is based on the decision made by Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kaellenius to focus on the transition to pure electric vehicles, so the EQ brand of "oil-to-electricity" is superfluous. Mercedes-Benz plans to abandon the EQ brand for electric cars as early as the end of 2024 when the next generation of compact cars are launched.

According to the official website, Mercedes-Benz has successively launched pure electric vehicles such as EQA, EQB, EQC, EQE, EQS and EQS SUV in China since 2021, among which EQA, EQB and EQC are all oil-to-electric models, which are based on A-class, B-class and C-class respectively, while EQE (price is 47.80-534300 yuan) and EQS (price is 84.5-1.339 million yuan) are based on the new pure electric platform, but their prices are very expensive. It also failed to stir up waves in the market.

The latest data show that from January to February 2023, the cumulative sales of Mercedes-Benz EQA, EQB and EQC are only 191,370 and 88, while the EQE is only 710. There is a huge gap between the overall car market performance and the domestic mainstream new energy vehicle companies.

According to the plan, Mercedes-Benz will launch six new pure electric models and plug-in hybrid models in the domestic market this year to cover major market segments; by 2025, all newly released models of Mercedes-Benz will be pure electric platforms, and each model will provide consumers with a choice of pure electric models; by 2030, Mercedes-Benz will be fully prepared for pure electric in the market where conditions permit. To achieve carbon neutralization of the new car product lineup by 2039 and build a luxury travel ecology with zero emissions.

There is no doubt that Mercedes-Benz is among the best in fuel vehicles, but in terms of electric car sales, Mercedes-Benz may need more time to build electric cars. As for whether Mercedes-Benz can still carve up its market share after the electrification of the whole department, we might as well wait and see.

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