Daimler’s CEO emphasized the importance of low-emission and innovation technologies on Friday, telling CNBC that the automotive industry was “in the middle of a transformation”.
“In addition to the things we know well – to build, frankly, the most desirable cars in the world – there are two technological trends that we are doubling: electrification and digitization,” Ola Källenius told Annette Weisbach of CNBC.
The Stuttgart-based company was “pouring billions into these new technologies,” he added, saying they “would lead our way towards CO2-free driving”. This decade, he said, would be “transformative”.
Källenius’ comments were made the same day that Daimler announced that its Mercedes-Benz car division sold more than 160,000 plug-in hybrids and fully electric vehicles in 2020, a triple compared to last year.
In the fourth quarter of 2020 alone, the German automotive giant said that approximately 87,000 xEVs – a term that refers to plug-in hybrids and all-electric vehicles – were sold.
Daimler added that the share of xEVs in Mercedes-Benz Cars reached 7.4% in 2020, compared to just 2% in 2019. Looking ahead, the share of xEVs in Mercedes-Benz Cars is forecast to grow to around 13 % this year, with several new models scheduled to be launched in 2021.
“We have more than tripled sales of our hybrid and all-electric cars,” said Källenius in a statement posted on the company’s website. “The demand for these vehicles has increased a lot, especially at the end of the year,” he added.
New goals, symbolic changes
The increase in sales of electric vehicles to Daimler comes at a time when politicians and companies are looking to adopt low-emission, zero-emission forms of transport.
Last month, the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, presented its Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy. Among other things, it plans to have at least 30 million zero-emission cars on the roads by the year 2030.
Drivers’ habits appear to be changing. In the UK – which recently announced plans to stop selling new cars and vans powered by diesel and gasoline by 2030 – road users’ demand for battery-powered electric vehicles increased by 185.9% in 2020, with 108,205 new registrations, from according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
Sales of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles reached 66,877 last year, an increase of 91.2%, SMMT figures show. The industry body said hybrid electric cars combined with battery and plug-in “accounted for more than one in 10 records – up from about one in 30 in 2019”.
During December, the Tesla Model 3 – an electric vehicle – was the best-selling car in the UK
In Norway, the acceptance of electric vehicles is even more pronounced than in the United Kingdom. On Tuesday, Reuters, citing the Norwegian Road Federation, reported that battery-powered electric vehicles accounted for 54.3% of all new car sales in Norway last year. This, he said, was a global record.
Daimler is one of many large automotive companies looking to make big moves in the electric vehicle industry and challenge Elon Musk’s Tesla.
The Volkswagen Group, for example, is investing 35 billion euros (about $ 42.86 billion) in electric vehicles and says it wants to launch about 70 fully electric models by 2030.
Nissan is also looking to increase its EV offering. In an interview with CNBC last month, Ashwani Gupta, the company’s chief operating officer, said a “tipping point” was reached with regard to vehicle electrification.
Gupta added that the Japanese company was “ready to take this opportunity anywhere in the world”.