Mercedes-Benz walks back electric car sales expectations

Mercedes-Benz is the latest carmaker to revise its electric vehicle (EV) rollout plans, pushing back its sales targets by five years as demand for battery-powered models cools in major markets.

Earlier this week Mercedes-Benz announced it would delay its target for EVs to account for 50 per cent of its global vehicle sales from 2025 to 2030.

However, there is yet another caveat, with the brand now including sales of plug-in hybrids – which can drive limited distances on solely electric power – in its 2030 target.

Mercedes-Benz walks back electric car sales expectations

The 2025 target – announced in 2021 – was unlikely to be reached, given figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association show EVs accounted for just 14.6 per cent of the European market in 2023.

Mercedes-Benz will continue to launch and produce both petrol and diesel-powered vehicles alongside EVs for the foreseeable future, reportedly delaying plans made in 2021 to only roll out zero tailpipe emissions models from 2025. It’s unclear when this cutoff will move to.

The brand had previously announced its intention to go fully electric by 2030, but only in markets which supported the move, without announcing specific regions where it planned to phase out petrol and diesel cars.

While Mercedes-Benz’s EVs accounted for approximately 20 per cent of its overall vehicle sales worldwide in 2023, battery-only models attributed about 7.7 per cent of the brand’s Australian division’s tally last year.

Across the 10 models sold by Mercedes-Benz’s passenger car and van divisions, 3188 EVs were sold in Australia, out of an overall 28,853 sales for the brand.

This ranked Mercedes-Benz as the fifth best-selling EV maker in Australia, behind Tesla (46,116 sales), BYD (12,438 sales), MG (5928 sales) and Volvo (3949 sales).

MORE: Everything Mercedes-Benz