- Nearly $2 Billion will go into China. $1.4 billion for passenger cars, and $550 million for commercial EV vans.
- Mercedes-Benz wants China-specific market localizations to strengthen its sales, like locally-made long-wheelbase versions of the forthcoming CLA sedan.
- These are meant to fend off competition from China's homegrown EV startups.
Like Volvo, Volkswagen, GM and Ford, Mercedes-Benz has openly walked back its EV future plans. The lozenge-shaped EQ cars are as good as dead, as is the MB.EA EV-specific architecture originally planned to replace the EQE and EQS when they reached the end of their model cycles. Still, despite all that grim news about Mercedes-Benz’s EV future, there are reports coming out of China that Mercedes-Benz is still putting a lot more money into making EVs work, at least in China. Mercedes-Benz is expected to put more than $2 Billion of investment in China to fight against China’s homegrown EV startups like Xpeng, Li Auto and Zeekr, according to local sources like CarNewsChina and CNEVPost.
