For the first time compassion with Mercedes. Award decrease of 55.8 percent over the first half of this year. The electric EQ models did not work sufficiently. The greatly decreased in China indicates fatal loss of prestige, while the Chinese car industry continues to develop at a threatening pace.
In the past you could make Mercedes-Benz real reproaches in crisis time. Bad engines, rusting carriages. How did they dare to beat the breast on the breast for that money das best oder nichts? Today’s drama can at most be charged the concert management. Of course Mercedes came too late with electric cars, but the first phase of the energy transition was confusing for everyone. How radically had the helm changed? How many people really wanted to drive electrically? The answer is now clear; With a subsidy please, without much less. But when the state aid for EVs was finished, the billions were already invested and there was no way back. While as a fossil brand you had to start all over again when the start-up Tesla had already taken a colossal lead. Your expertise in the field of motorbike construction and architecture was worth nothing in one fell swoop. And no matter how fast the old players now learn, the technology is still in its infancy. Battery generation remains a point of care. Battery packages lose their storage capacity little by little. In the longer term you get a little less far per charge.
Mercedes tells the honest story by specifying the health status or soh (state of health) of the battery pack for each occasion, expressed in percentages of the initial capacity. It is not a harmless strategy. On the one hand you provide hesitant customers for certainty, on the other hand the truth can deter. People are going to count: 10 percent degeneration is also a generous reach of 500 kilometers a sensitive loss. A car with a mileage of 4,000 and a SOH result of 97 percent will never be lost again if interested people will extrapolate on the basis of 3 percent loss per 4,000 kilometers. This way you strengthen the suspicion that you wanted to remove.
On the other hand, it can also be about what Mercedes did well. It has dared to invent itself again. The round, extremely streamlined forms of the EQ-sedans EQE and EQS were a daring break with the virile monumentism of the house. The step was looking forward to it. A low air resistance presses the wind noise apart from the consumption, making it unlikely to quiet in those fine -moving cars. Apparently they were not the Mercedes enthusiasts proud enough. He wanted a monument with a star on the hood, not such a soft woke machine from the wind tunnel.
Giant step forwards
Now Mercedes is scratching back. The new electric CLA looks a bit more like a traditional car. It is more important how the technology was tackled. The 800 Volt technology finally makes market-based fast-charging speeds up to 320 kW possible. For the single -engine basic model CLA 250+, a twin -engine also comes, Mercedes promises a power consumption of 14.1 kWh per one hundred kilometers. By -catch is a spectacular range of according to Mercedes 743 kilometers. That would be a giant step forward. The existing driving lines of Mercedes were not exactly the most efficient.
Now the best news: he beats his promise. During the first test drive, the average consumption fluctuates between 13.3 and 13.8 kWh, for Mercedes-Benz one Quantum Leap. Furthermore, the CLA is a pleasure to ride. I looked at the dashboard as little as possible. Displays from door to door, almost Chinese Showing Off. There can be tiring with it, all equally unimportant.
Next problem: China builds a similar and similar good car for 10 or 20,000 euros less that the Chinese would probably buy. That is the real danger. Top brands used to run on mythology, based on their aura of quality and innovative technology. That myth has collapsed. In the meantime, a Chinese debutant with sufficient capital is just as good as every German top brand within ten years. The loss of that image bonus no longer exceeds an elite manufacturer. Mercedes boss Ola Källenius, smart man, realizes how China can destroy the existing car industry. But what will Mercedes do? Purchasing more Chinese parts, so that the cars become substantially cheaper but also Chinese, so that the defense operation could very well print on self-destruction-because then the Mercedes-Benz brand loses its last straw, its traditional authenticity. For example, a proud group of pure need plays with fire.
NEW: Give this article as a gift
As an NRC subscriber you can do every month 10 articles Give a gift to someone without an NRC subscription. The recipient can read the article directly, without a payment wall.