Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler is looking to invest more than 40 billion euros ($47 billion) between 2022 and 2030 to further create battery electric vehicles (EVs).
The German luxury carmaker further said that it would make eight battery plants as it ramps up EV production, and that from 2025 all new vehicle platforms would only make electric cars.
“We really want to go for it … and be dominantly, if not all electric, by the end of the decade,” Chief Executive Ola Källenius said, adding that spending on traditional combustion-engine technology would be “close to zero” by 2025.
However, Daimler didn’t give a tight deadline for ending sales of fossil-fuel cars.
Few carmakers like Geely-owned Volvo Cars have promised to go all electric by 2030, while General Motors Co says it aspires to be fully electric by 2035. “We need to move the debate away from when you build the last combustion engine because it’s not relevant,” Källenius said. “The question is how quickly can you scale up to being close to 100% electric and that’s what we`re focusing on.”
This development comes after a week of the European Union proposing an effective ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2035, aiming to speed up the switch to zero-emission EVs as part of a broad package of measures to combat global warming.
Ahead of the EU`s announcement, carmakers had announced a series of major investments in EVs. Earlier this month, Stellantis said it would invest more than 30 billion euros by 2025 on electrifying its line-up. Daimler said that as of 2025, it expects electric and hybrid electric cars to make up 50% of sales, earlier than its previous forecast that this would happen by 2030. The carmaker will unveil three electric platforms – one to cover its range of passenger cars and SUVs, one for vans and one for high-performance vehicles – that will be launched in 2025.
