Mercedes-Benz is the latest in a growing number of automakers to scale back their more ambitious plans to electrify most of, if not their entire fleet by next decade.
In the face of softer-than-expected sales of the EQE and EQS, the three-pointed star has had to go back to the drawing board and halt development altogether of the MB.EA Large platform that was slated for their replacements. These were due some time around 2028.
German publication Hadelsblatt broke the news that the plug will be pulled on the MB.EA Large architecture, freeing between €4 billion and €6 billion (AU$6.52-9.78b) to invest in other projects. The large scale investment was to include massive infrastructure and factory changes in Germany.
Instead, a revised version of the EVA2 platform which currently underpins the EQS and EQE will be utilised, albeit with an 800V charging architecture doubling today’s 400V, Autocar reports.
One variant of the MB.EA platform will allegedly remain in development; the MB.EA Medium, destined for the yet-to-be-released EQC sedan and the next generation of the EQC SUV – the current EQC was the first EQ-badged Mercedes-Benz launched in 2019. Presently, the latter uses the same ‘MRA’ platform as the GLC-Class, which means it is constrained by needing to accommodate combustion-engined options.
Other electric Mercedes-Benz platforms under development include the MMA for the small A-Class, GLA and CLA successors and the MB.VAN for commercial vehicles, including successors of the eSprinter and eVito. AMG is not being left out of the equation either, with an MB.AMG platform dedicated for sports cars.
Mercedes-Benz already announced a rollback to its ambitious plan for 50 per cent of all its cars sold to be EV (including PHEV). The implications are more widespread than the brand’s electrified vehicles, however, with successors to the S-Class, GLE and GLS soldiering on with an updated version of the MRA platform used today.
