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The Future Looks Electric at Mercedes Benz

Mercedes-Benz have announced that they are preparing to go electric by the end of the decade, assuming that the market conditions allow it. This pledge will involve huge changes across the board, including an investment of over £35 billion into battery electric vehicles.

As of 2025, Mercedes-Benz will launch three electric only offerings across the entire product range:

• MB.EA will cover medium to large size passenger cars.
• AMG.EA will be a dedicated performance electric vehicle platform.
• VAN.EA will support a new era of purpose made electric vans and light commercial vehicles, which are dedicated to reducing the emissions within cities. 

Mercedes-Benz will need a lot of battery power to keep up with these electric plans, specifically they will require a battery capacity of more than 200 Gigawatt hours. They are planning the addition of 9 plants, dedicated to building battery systems. They are also planning to set up 8 Gigafactories to produce cells. This new generation of batteries will be standardized, and they will be compatible across more than 90% of all Mercedes-Benz cars and vans.

In order to keep up with the added amount of electric vehicles on the road, Mercedes will be introducing ‘Plug & Charge’, which will go live alongside the launch of EQS. This will enable customers to plug in, charge and unplug their vehicles, without the additional steps of authentication and payment processing being necessary. Mercedes-Benz are also working with Shell garages to expand their charging network. This partnership means electric Mercedes owners will have access to Shell’s recharge network, which will feature over 30,000 charge points across Europe, China and North America by 2025.

Mercedes-Benz have been preparing for the transition into electric vehicle production, they invested early into flexible, state of the art production systems. As early as next year 8 types of electric Mercedes vehicles will be produced at 7 locations across 3 continents. Furthermore, in a bid to reduce their environmental footprint, all passenger and car assembly sites run by the Mercedes group will switch to carbon neutral production.