Ola Källenius, CEO of Mercedes-Benz: "We have not announced the date on which we will stop producing the last internal combustion engine."

It's clear that the automotive industry is facing the biggest challenge in its history with the transition to electric cars . Traditional brands are the most affected by this change: large investments in factories, R&D, employee layoffs, the emergence of new companies ... Mercedes-Benz is called to lead this change, but along the way it has encountered new obstacles that it overcomes as best it can. And sometimes, the only way is to give time more. Just look at what Ola Källenius, CEO of Mercedes-Benz, said just a year ago: "We will continue to manufacture hybrid and combustion engine vehicles well into the 2030s, if there is demand."

These statements contrast with those he expressed twelve months earlier in the American media outlet Motortrend , in which he shared a more optimistic point of view: "All new vehicle architectures starting in 2025 will be exclusively electric. By the end of this decade, we will be able to serve markets ready for electric vehicles." The company's strategy was to become a 100% electric brand by 2030, five years before the date initially set by the European Union to ban the sale of new internal combustion passenger cars.

The reason for this change of plan, which other brands have also made , is that the forecasts for the expansion of electric vehicles are not being met—it's slower than initially estimated. The weakening sales of its zero-emission cars forced the CEO of Mercedes-Benz to rethink some issues.

In any case, the car company continues to focus on zero-emission mobility, with a strategy of completely ending investment in combustion engines: "We do not have an internal combustion engine development program planned for the early 2030s, with developments expected to appear between 2035 and 2042."

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While this demonstrates that the future is electric at Mercedes-Benz, the brand is also working on other lines. As is already the case at the Volkswagen Group, the star firm is betting on synthetic fuels for a future without petroleum or CO2. To achieve this, it will use Formula 1 as a test bed. "We are going to use F1 to develop low-emission fuels with our fuel partner (Petronas). It will be a fuel for extreme motorsports, but the underlying technologies are practically the same," confirmed Källenius. In short, they will be much more expensive and exclusive fuels. Along the lines of what will happen with the new combustion engines prepared for the future Euro 7 regulations .

Renew or die "We have to be Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz. We have to reinvent the original concept."

What Mercedes does seem to be clear about is that the electric car's turning point is yet to come: "It's difficult to predict exactly when it will happen," reflects Ola Källenius. "If it takes a little longer than expected, that's fine. We're our own investor. We're financing this transformation with our cash flow," recalls the CEO of Mercedes-Benz. And he concludes with a statement of intent: "It's our turn to be Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz . We have to reinvent the original concept," concludes Källenius.