Mercedes U-turn on shared tech for petrol and EV cars bucks the trend
Mercedes will consolidate its ICE and BEV models into single projects, but still offer both powertrains
For nearly a decade, we’ve been told that bespoke platforms for BEVs bring undeniable advantages in the quest to make them more efficient and better to drive. However, Mercedes has turned this notion upside down, because it’s now confirmed that in the future, its equivalent BEV and ICE models will be based on one platform, even after it’s already spent the money developing bespoke options.
We spoke with Mathias Geisen, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, at the Beijing Auto Show, and he confirmed to us that the new plan is for the company to offer a ‘true Mercedes’ experience in each car regardless of the powertrain. He said, “We overestimated the speed with which customers would be willing to switch over to electric mobility.
“It’s pretty clear that customers want to have the choice, and we can’t predict in a reasonable way how quickly that will happen. So we have changed our strategy, so that we are fully flexible in offering products according to the customer’s request.
“But point two. Years ago, we were under the assumption that customers would appreciate a strong differentiation between the design of a combustion vehicle and the design of an electric vehicle,” he continued. “That has turned out not to be the case today. They tell us ‘We want the same iconic Mercedes design’, so we close the zip on that.”
However, while this confirmed that the car’s designs would converge, we wanted to clarify whether the platforms would also be combined into one, to which Geisen answered: “Step-by-step, they will come together.”
This means that future models with different powertrains will return to a single platform, a policy that Mercedes has already set in motion. The German company’s MMA platform, which underpins the new CLA and its other entry-level models, is flexible enough to accommodate both BEV and hybrid powertrains – and the electric model is one of the most efficient EVs on sale.
We already have a good idea what the first of these new converged models will become, because prototypes of the next E-Class electric appear to have identical styling and – crucially – proportions to the ICE models. The same will also be true of the S-Class, and we expect the next-gen GLE and GLS to do just the same.
In the latter half of this decade, it means we’ll see a switch between the two big German premium brands. As Mercedes closes the door on development of its pure-BEV platform for its mainstream models, BMW is only just now revealing its bespoke BEV platform to be used by the new iX3 and i3.
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