The small city car Smart will be fully electric by 2020. Car manufacturer Daimler also announced on Monday that by 2022, it will offer an electric version of every Mercedes model it sells.
The Smart car is often seen as the perfect city car because of its small size. And it’s about to get even smarter for urban use: beginning in 2020, all smart cars will be offered in an electric version only. The announcement was made by Dieter Zetsche, chairman of Daimler’s board of directors, at the opening of the International Motor Show in Frankfurt.
According to Reuters, Daimler will also focus more on electric mobility in its other brands in the coming years. From 2022, Mercedes will offer an electric version of every model it sells, either as a fully electric vehicle or as a hybrid model. Mercedes already offers more than 10 models of fully electric cars.
As batteries are becoming less and less expensive to manufacture, Daimler said that it will cost the same to purchase electric cars as those with petrol or diesel engines by 2025. But that doesn’t mean that Daimler believes combustion engines will disappear from the market at that time.
“Combustion engines will remain the backbone for CO2 targets for a long time, and also our financial strength,” said Zetsche.
The transition to electric mobility requires high investments and lower margins than current models, added Zetsche.
“We are still aiming for a 10 per cent return on sales, but have to be prepared for a kind of transition, with a corridor of 8 to 10 per cent,” he said.
Image credit: Daimler
