Ola Kallenius, member of the board of management at Daimler AG, Mercedes-Benz Cars marketing and sales stated that an eco-friendly sub-brand could come about in the near future, Autocar UK reports.
Should this be the case, it will effectively rival the BMW i sub-brand, which markets environmentally-friendly cars such as the BMW i8 and i3. However, Kallenius believes that the company needs to first put its focus on growing its range of plug-in hybrid and zero emission models.
“We could choose for the purpose-made electric vehicles to create some sort of sub-brand but, right now, Mercedes is focused on investing tremendous resources into the path towards zero emissions. It’s something that will affect the whole portfolio,” Kallenius explained.
“What we’re going to do in terms of the road to zero emissions is invest heavily in alternative drivelines and electrification. That’s a very wide strategy, but it means that by the end of next year we will have 10 plug-in hybrid models, which, I think, is the widest portfolio of any luxury manufacturer,” he said.
He revealed that by the end of 2016, the brand will have three electric cars ready. “We will have three electric cars, with the B-Class and the two Smarts. And at the end of next year we will launch a next-generation fuel cell vehicle, which is a zero-emissions vehicle based on the GLC platform,” Kallenius stated.
Previously, it was reported that Mercedes-Benz will be building a new platform for its electric vehicles called the Electric Vehicle Architecture (EVA), which will share elements with the Modular Rear Architecture. It’s said to feature on four vehicles – a sedan, a mid-sized SUV, an S-Class sized vehicle and a large crossover – with the first to be launched by 2018.
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