The report says that work on the MB.EA architecture for the E-Class and S-Class has been halted
by Chris Shelton
5 hours ago
- Mercedes has dropped plans to develop a new MB.EA platform for large electric vehicles in the future, according to the report
- The architecture would have been used for the electric E-Class and S-Class models
- The Automaker will instead update the existing EVA2 platform currently used by the EQE and EQS
The slowdown in demand for electric vehicles is not making automakers wonder how to change the cars they have already spent billions developing. It also made them worry about how their development money would be spent in the future, and Mercedes chose not to spend more on the EV platform that would have formed the basis for the company’s next big electric cars.
Fading interest in electric cars has forced Mercedes to rethink its electric vehicle strategy, and that means halting work on MB.EA’s new large platform dedicated to cars like the next-generation Mercedes E-Class and S-Class. Instead, the automaker will significantly reduce its costs by shifting resources to further improve the EVA2 platform that it has been using for the past few years in electric cars such as the EQE and EQS.
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The news was first published in Germany HandelsblattBefore Mercedes confirmed the story to a second outlet, Car Week“The pace of transformation will be determined by market conditions and the desires of our customers,” he told reporters.
Customers are telling Mercedes through sales figures that they still want to buy cars with combustion engines, which the company now expects to offer in the 2030s. The company had originally envisioned switching almost entirely to electric vehicles by the end of this decade, but earlier this year the company’s president said there was not enough demand for electric vehicles to achieve that goal. Current forecasts are that only half of Mercedes’ 2030 sales will be BEV and PHEV vehicles.
Slow sales of the company’s EQ cars are believed to be the driving factor in the development of Mercedes’ U-shaped car, which Autocar It is proposed to provide between 4 to 6 billion euros ($4.3 to 6.5 billion). The publication adds that changes to the EVA2 platform will upgrade the electrical architecture from 400 to 800 volts, and introduce new motors and batteries that provide greater driving range between charges.
However, this is not quite the end of the road for the MB.EA project. While the large MB.EA program has been cancelled, development will continue on the smaller version of the MB.EA platform, the MB.EA Medium, intended for the electric C-Class and its SUV sibling, which replaces the EQC today.
H/T: Automotive News
