Mercedes of the future

LUXURY carmaker Daimler plans to offer an electric or hybrid version of every MercedesBenz model within five years, its chief executive said.

“By 2022, we’ll have the entire Mercedes-Benz product portfolio in electrified version as well, to offer a maximum of choices for our consumers,” chief executive Dieter Zetsche told investors. “The time is right.”

Daimler’s announcement comes as the IAA international car show gets under way in Frankfurt this week, where more than 200 new cars will have their world premiere.

The change will mean more than 50 vehicles bearing the Mercedes three-pointed star boast all-electric or hybrid drive. With ever more capacious batteries and falling costs, it was “realistic to expect that by 2025, an electric driveline could be in the range of the cost of a combustion engine driveline”, Zetsche said.

Daimler will only offer fully electric versions of its Smart city cars by 2020 – “the first conventional car brand that will offer its entire portfolio with edrive only”, he added.

The electric transformation at Daimler won’t happen at the flick of a switch. Executives aim to find some

billion (R62-billion) of savings to maintain the 10% margin Daimler achieved in 2016 and 2017 – despite lower profitability from electric cars.

Electric vehicles only offer “half the margin of an ordinary car”, financial director Frank Lindenberg said.

But Germany’s automakers have been rattled by a diesel emissions cheating scandal, which has so far cost the world’s largest car firm Volkswagen more than billion (R309-billion). Suspicion has since fallen on other manufacturers, including Daimler.

And executives and politicians have scrambled to avoid draconian measures to reduce air pollution, including mooted diesel driving bans in some cities. — AFP