If you were planning to get one of the Mercedes electric cars this year, too bad for you. It won’t happen. This is a message coming from Ola Kallenius, the company’s CEO, so you’d better believe it.
Ola Kallenius said it on the Future of the Car 2022 conference, when asked with reference to other brands, such as Volkswagen, that indicated running out of EV cars. That is available for the United States, but also in Europe, where no customer can get an ID electric car from the Germans. “That is largely true for us as well,” he stated.
Last week, the Volkswagen reps informed that the company had a backlog of 300,000 EV orders in Western Europe alone. Add Eastern Europe and the U.S. and the figures skyrocket. Volkswagen sold more than 99,000 electric cars worldwide in the first quarter. Customers who order a Volkswagen ID will need to wait until next year to get one. The most popular models are the ID.3, ID.4 and Audi e-tron. Tesla is still ahead. Despite production bumps the American carmaker is dealing with, it delivered more than three times as many EVs in the first quarter of 2022.
Mercedes electric cars receive a tremendous response, says Kallenius
The Mercedes-Benz Swedish executive says the customer response to the launch of every EQ-branded model has been “tremendous”. “We are doing everything we can to get the cars to customers as fast as we can,” he added.
On the same event, Kallenius mentioned a full electrified platform specifically designed for high-performance cars. The carmaker will reveal it on May 19. It is the day that Mercedes is planning to present the AMG Vision concept. Most likely, this concept will build on the new architecture.
“We are now in full development of a fully dedicated electric architecture for AMG, from the ground up.” The new platform will make its way to series production towards the end of 2025.
