Silent running: Why EVs won't save the planet. Yet.

When Mercedes-Benz finance chief Harald Wilhelm announced the company would reduce its investment in internal combustion engine research and development by 80 percent by 2026, the automotive world shifted a little on its axis.

- Angus MacKenzie

Additionally, from 2024 the only new platform architectures Mercedes plans to create are for battery electric vehicles. This is a big deal.

Mercedes can rightly claim to have invented the automobile, and internal combustion engines have powered its vehicles for more than 130 years. Now, like Volvo, Jaguar, and others, it’s committed to an all-electric lineup by the end of the decade. “We are going from EV-first to EV-only for our new architectures and cars,” Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius confirmed as the company prepared to unveil electric-powered alternatives to not only the imperious S-Class limousine but also its heartland E-Class sedan and iconic G-Class off-roader, among others.

Corporate paradigm shifts don’t come much more profound than this. But look beyond the headlines, and Källenius concedes Mercedes will continue to build combustion engine vehicles beyond 2030. The awkward truth is the company that kickstarted the automotive age is, like everyone else, chasing the industry’s new carbon-reduced reality.