Mercedes-Benz says battery EVs still superior, not interested in e-fuels

Despite the policy U-turn by the European Union to exempt carbon-neutral synthetic fuels (also known as e-fuels) from the trade bloc’s 2035 ban on combustion engines, Mercedes-Benz will maintain its course to phase out combustion engines in favour of battery EVs.

When asked by German business publication Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung if Mercedes-Benz welcomes the EU’s exemption of combustion engines running on carbon neutral e-fuels from the 2035 ban, CEO Ola Kallenius said “I think technology neutrality is good. But Mercedes has a strategy that clearly focuses on electric drive. We will not fundamentally change this because of the decisions on e-fuels. From 2025, we will align all our new vehicle architectures solely for electric drive. Four years ago, we already said that our new car fleet should be CO2-neutral throughout the value chain by 2039. That is our goal.”

Also read: EV-only future threatened as Germany makes U-turn on EU's 2035 combustion engines ban

He also flatly rejected any notion of Mercedes-Benz putting money on developing combustion engines running on e-fuels.

“No, we are implementing our strategy,” said the CEO.

Mercedes-Benz has previously said that all models developed after 2025 will be electric-only. Combustion engine models will still be sold in certain markets that are not ready for an EV-only model line-up, but no new engines or platforms for such cars will be developed.

After 2030, Mercedes-Benz will be an EV-only brand, with a caveat that this will only happen in countries where market conditions allow. Presumably, this will mean that lesser developed markets will only sell old combustion engine models.

While Mercedes-Benz will not be following other European carmakers like Porsche to invest in e-fuels, CEO Kallenius however recognized that there is a role for e-fuels in reducing emissions of existing Mercedes-Benz cars on the road, but ultimately considers it to be an interior technology that won’t have much future compared to battery EVs.

“For existing vehicles, yes. If someone has a Mercedes with a combustion engine, they will also be able to drive it with e-fuels. We will still offer both drive types, electric and combustion, in parallel until the beginning of the next decade. But in the long term, we do not see the future in e-fuels but in electric drive, that is what we are focusing on,” he said.

“Why is the electric car better? Its efficiency is simply sensationally good. About 70 percent of the energy from the electricity generated, for example, with a wind turbine arrives as driving force on the road with an electric car, while it is much less for a combustion engine. In addition, electric cars emit no emissions, while this is not the case for cars operated with e-fuels. This is relevant because it may well be that in the future, large cities such as London or Paris will require local emission-free driving. And thirdly, compared to the combustion engine, the electric car is still a young technology. We see a great potential for progress: Electric drive will surpass the combustion engine in terms of performance within this decade,” he added.