Friday June 18, 2021
Reaction to Greens plans
Daimler wants to give preference to the combustion engine
The German auto industry apparently wants to be prepared for the Greens’ plans to ban internal combustion engines by 2030. According to reports, Daimler is switching to e-mobility much earlier on many models. Audi and BMW are also likely to change their course.
Daimler and Audi are reportedly pushing the pace when converting to electric cars. Daimler’s car subsidiary Mercedes-Benz wanted to bring many of the new electric cars planned for 2024 onto the market a year earlier than planned, reported the “Manager Magazin” with reference to corporate groups.
In the next generation, more than half of the current models would only come onto the market as e-cars, so that the variants with internal combustion engines will be phased out more quickly. Daimler boss Ola Källenius wants to present his new course to the public before the summer break. A Daimler spokesman said the company would not comment on speculation.
Audi boss Markus Duesmann has announced internally that from 2026 the VW premium subsidiary will no longer present any new gasoline or diesel models, including none with hybrid engines, reported the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. The best-selling A3 and A4 models would no longer have any successors as combustion engines and would be completely redesigned.
According to the report, only battery models will be sold by the beginning of the 2030s at the latest, including in China, where Audi is planning to use combustion engines for longer than in Europe. Duesmann presented the plans to works councils and top management on Thursday, it said. An Audi spokeswoman said the company was not making any speculations. Audi has already announced no new internal combustion engines to develop more, but only to improve existing engines.
Accelerated “electrification” at BMW
In 2030, BMW wants to generate at least half of its global sales with fully electric cars. At the annual general meeting at the end of March, the Daimler boss announced that he would accelerate the “electrification of the product portfolio”, but has not made any specific statements since. At the end of 2019, the passenger car subsidiary Mercedes-Benz Cars set itself the goal of achieving a sales share of electrified cars – i.e. pure e-cars and hybrid cars – of more than 50 percent by 2030.
As the business magazine also reported, Källenius wants to set the pace in order to be prepared for an extreme scenario of a ban on internal combustion engines from 2030. This is what the Greens are calling for, who have a good chance of being part of the government after the federal elections in September.
Their chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock had made it clear at a meeting with the board of directors of the industry association VDA at the end of May that the internal combustion engine would have no future with the Greens. However, she did not give an exact date for a possible exit.
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