Mercedes-Benz partners with Geely for EV and engine development


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Sharing plans for Mercedes-Benz’s switch to pure electrification of its line-up at the Financial Times’ Future of the Car Summit, Daimler CEO Ola Källenius shared that the brand will still continue to produce combustion engine while it remain commercially viable.

Based on an Autocar UK report, Källenius iterated that the brand will be ready to make the jump to a full electric line up as soon as it makes sense to do so.

“On the journey to zero-emission, we will come to a point where the scaling changes, where electric drive becomes our dominant drive, and eventually you actually lose the scale on combustion,” said Källenius.

“It is good, then, that from an asset point of view, the cash investment lies in the past. You can, in an economical way, use those assets as long as the market carries it and it makes sense.”

Basing from the statement of the Mercedes-Benz boss, it seems that the brand will not invest much in developing totally new combustion engines but will update existing engines in the Benz lineup to be compliant with the new Euro-7 regulations. The use of hybrid technology or electric assistance will continue to be used in the Mercedes-Benz engines for reduced emissions and improved efficiency.

“That is why we have not artificially picked a point [for a full transition to electrification], but when a new technology takes over, you come to a point on that S-curve where the exponential growth becomes so fast that it happens on its own,” said Källenius

“When that point comes, we will be ready, and we will not hesitate for nostalgic reasons to switch over to the new technology 100%.”

Daimler, Mercedes-Benz’s parent company, has transformed its Smart brand into a full-EV brand. The company has also partnered with Chinese auto brand Geely in developing an all-new Smart EV line-up highlighted by a new electric SUV concept that is set to be unveiled later this year.

Daimler’s partnership does not end with developing EV cars alone. The German company’s partnership with Geely and its Volvo subsidiary is to the extent of developing combustion engines for entry-level cars. In fact, the production of Mercede-Benz four-cylinder combustion engines is set to be shifted to China following the partnerships’ local production of a new line of hybrid four-cylinder engines.

Källenius said, “with Geely, we have a very good partnership. The projects we do have a clear rationale: win-win. If both sides can win on an economical, timing and technical basis, we go for it.”

“The scaling effect of doing that together was smarter than doing it alone, especially in a decade of transformation when some of the volume gets shifted over to electrification only.”


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