More than 15 years ago I sat across the dinner table from a senior Mercedes executive who, presumably fuelled by a drop of red, veered away from the party line as he’d just suffered a blowout to tell me that hybrids were a waste of time. Benz, the rogue suit said, should be channeling its energies into pure electric cars and fuel cell vehicles, not expending money and energy on these inefficient, interim neither-nothing-nor-something machines.
And it did eventually go on to develop EVs. We’ve now got a full suite of EQ models, with more battery-powered cars on the way, including the production version of the 2023 CLA concept, an electric sedan that promised a 466-mile (750 km) driving range. But those ‘waste of time’ hybrid powertrains aren’t going anywhere. In response to softening demand for EVs, Mercedes has just announced that it’ll be updating its combustion engines, including hybrid variants, to take the brand into the next decade.
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