Mercedes-Benz remains confident in its electrification pathway despite cooling global sales and ongoing skepticism, according to the brand’s Australia-Pacific CEO.
The brand was the fifth best-selling EV manufacturer in Australia last year, behind Tesla (46,116 sales), BYD (12,438 sales), MG (5928 sales) and Volvo (3949 sales).
It achieved this, however, with a much wider range of electric vehicles (EVs) than any of those brands.
Currently, it offers the EQE sedan, EQS liftback, the EQV and eVito Tourer people movers, and four SUVs in the EQA, EQB, EQE SUV and EQS SUV.
The Mercedes-Benz Vans commercial vehicle division also has the eVito and eSprinter vans.
100s of new car deals are available through CarExpert right now. Get the experts on your side and score a great deal. Browse now.
EQS
Despite expanding its EV lineup, Mercedes-Benz is experiencing a sales decline in Australia – to the end of September car sales were down 31 per cent on the same period last year, while van sales were also down 34.8 percent.
Mr Cohen says the manufacturer remains intent on pushing ahead with its electrification strategy.
“The expectation was that electric adoption would happen faster,” Mercedes-Benz APAC CEO Jaime Cohen told CarExpert.
“Now it has slowed down a little bit, but the trend continues to be towards electric. So for us, the end destination is to do electric.
“We just have to adjust to the pace of change, because customers have different experiences. There are certain things that have to change.
“For example, there was some anxiety about range, now there are certain questions about the accessibility of charging stations and so on.”
EQB
Earlier this year, Mercedes-Benz walked back its global target to be EV-only by 2030, delaying sales targets by five years in response to demand for battery-powered models cooling in major markets.
Sales of petrol and diesel-powered vehicles will also continue for the foreseeable future.
“Electric is a personal decision of what you want to drive, what you feel comfortable driving,” Mr Cohen said.
“Everybody has to feel comfortable with driving habits and what they do in order to go and jump into an electric car. Adoption is still happening – there are people who started it, and that’s what they will now drive forever.
“Other people are trying it and will come over to it, and we still think that in a few years that’s the only option that everybody is going to have. So the pace has changed, but it’s still in that direction.”
EQS SUV
MORE: Everything Mercedes-Benz
