By Victoria Waldersee and Ilona Wissenbach
BERLIN -Mercedes-Benz expects to have factories producing completely electrical autos (EVs) by the second half of the last decade however will keep away from constructing EV-only crops, as an alternative retaining manufacturing strains versatile in keeping with market demand.
The carmaker foresees a few of its manufacturing strains inside factories switching totally to electrical even sooner, manufacturing chief Joerg Burzer mentioned in an interview with Reuters.
“Constructing a complete new battery-electric automobile manufacturing unit takes time. We've got taken one other method,” Burzer mentioned.
“We will definitely have some strains producing solely electrical autos within the subsequent few years… we additionally see complete factories switching to electrical – that could be a matter for the second half of the last decade.”
The premium carmaker will launch manufacturing of its EQE mannequin, revealed final September on the IAA Mobility present, in Bremen later this 12 months, adopted by Beijing and Tuscaloosa.
Mercedes is betting on the mannequin, an electrical adaptation of the E-class with a peak vary of 660 km, to spice up EV unit gross sales because it shifts funding away from inner combustion autos and in the direction of electric-only manufacturing platforms.
“With the ramp-up of the EQE in Bremen and later in Beijing, we're coming right into a section the place we will ship at far larger volumes,” Burzer mentioned.
Simply 2.3% of Mercedes-Benz Automobiles’ gross sales final 12 months had been battery-electric autos, rising to 11% together with plug-in hybrids, which have each an engine and a battery.
As of 2025, it expects electrical and hybrid electrical automobiles to make up 50% of gross sales, with all-electric automobiles anticipated to account for many of that.
Current fashions are all being inbuilt factories additionally producing inner combustion engine autos, with batteries transported by rail from the principle plant in Sindelfingen to crops in Germany and Hungary.
Down the road, battery meeting and manufacturing could possibly be introduced nearer to automotive crops because the design of autos develops to combine the battery extra carefully into the automotive, Burzer mentioned.
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