Daimler, and therefore Mercedes-Benz, stops the development of future internal combustion engines and will now focus on the development of the electric mobility. According to Markus Schaefer’s statements to Auto Motor und Sport, in Daimler there are no plans for future internal combustion engine developments, although this situation could change. All of the attention and therefore most of Daimler’s resources will now go to electric motors and their batteries, leaving gasoline and diesel engines in the background.
Markus Schaefer emphasizes that the main focus is now on electrification, electric motors and battery development. It is also about taking the combustion engine and transmission to new areas of development, that is, improving existing engines and transmissions. The general budget for research and development remains at a high level, says Schäfer.
The German manufacturer takes an important step and represents a small revolution in the industry. First, at the industrial level. Mercedes-Benz released a new 6-cylinder in-line engine less than two years ago, which they point to in Auto Motor und Sport, could be the last gasoline engine developed by Mercedes-Benz.
Engines, gasoline or diesel, are the most expensive element of a car, both in terms of development and manufacturing. Hence, on some occasions, outside the large economies of scale of a large group (such as Volkswagen or Toyota), some groups resort to engines from other manufacturers for some of their models.
This is precisely the case of Mercedes-Benz, which uses Renault small displacement engines in some of its models, such as in Class A (1.3 liter turbocharged 163 hp gasoline and 1.5 liter diesel 116 hp). Stopping developing new internal combustion engines, Daimler would save hundreds of millions of euros.
And secondly, this announcement is finally not a surprise and follows the logic of recent years. Daimler, although not the first to reach the electric segment, is one of the few traditional Western manufacturers that has done his homework.
Daimler has planned an investment of 10,000 million euros in electric mobility (hence putting a brake on the development of gasoline and diesel engines). This investment is destined to the development of 10 electric models that will reach the market by 2022 and, above all, to the implementation of battery manufacturing in Germany. He opened his first factory of this type in mid-2018, near Desdre, after an investment of 500 million euros.
This announcement also has a strong symbolism. After all, it was Daimler who finished inventing the combustion engine and patented the first car in history. Come on, the inventor of the car goes electric. There is nothing.
It is not yet the end of the internal combustion engine
However, that does not mean that we will no longer see Mercedes-Benz and AMG with internal combustion engines. On the one hand because the M256 6-cylinder in-line engine, the most recent engine in the group, is more than just a 6-cylinder. It is part of a new family of modular engines developed around 500 cc cylinders each.
This means that 1.5-liter 3-cylinder and 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engines can be created, such as the new Mercedes-AMG A 45 4Matic and AMG A35 4Matic. In addition, they are engines that have already been developed to integrate a soft hybridization of 48 V, inaugurated with the Mercedes-AMG CLS 53 4Matic +.
On the other hand, this family of engines is designed to have a commercial life of at least 10 to 15 years, but it could be even more with the help of hybridization. As with other engines in the group, for example the V8 4.0 liters of AMG that will soon receive the help of an electric motor to develop more than 800 hp.
And is that investing in electrification and pausing the development of combustion engines does not mean stop manufacturing them. In fact, remember that Schaefer talks about electrification, that is, hybrid and electric cars.
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