Mercedes Benz Unplugs its Electric Vehicle Plan, Volvo agree with them

We previously reported that the boys from Stuttgart, Mercedes Benz that is, announced back in February that they are delaying their goal of being an EV only manufacturer by at least five years, until 2035, as investments in capacity and technology has not been met by the actual demand from the public leading to a readjustment of production plans.

All automakers have been betting big on an Electric future, largely due to government legislation mandating the end to the combustion engine in a futile effort to slow global warming. But there is a problem. 

The technology isn’t really green nor ready, there is not enough raw materials available and thus EVs are expensive and one last little fact: the public don’t really like them.

Ola Källenius, CEO of Mercedes Benz, had previously warned the market that the target of being all EV by 2030 would not be met. Currently of all the cars Mercedes sell, only about 11% are EVs—climbing to 19% if you include the hybrid variants. 

The news coming in from the USA is that dealers there are struggling to get close to these targets with EVs taking over 84 days to sell.

The good news for Mercedes fans is that the company has committed to updating and developing their ICE models well into the next decade to cater for public demand. The investing public were impressed, with shares in the German car maker rallying by almost 6% on the day.

They are not the only company to feel this way. Chinese owned Volvo announced that they too are abandoning their stated goal of selling only EVs by 2030 citing that they needed to be pragmatic and flexible in the face of changing market conditions and lack lustre demand. 

They still believe that by 2030, 90-100% of the cars they sell will be EV or Hybrid variants and they may have a point. Volvo are first amongst the peers in the luxury segment of the market when it comes to selling EVs. Currently 26% of their sales are for EV’s which rises to 48% when you factor in the Hybrids that they sell.

Volvo cars stated that there had been a slower than expected roll-out of infrastructure then they expected meaning that range and charger anxiety still top the list of why people do not want an EV.

 However, they also criticised government withdrawal of subsidies and the uncertainty over the looming tariff trade war in certain markets. The market didn’t like the news and the companies share prices dropped by 4% as a result.

And all of this after Automaking giants Volkswagen admitted that they had problems transitioning over to green technology.