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Mercedes-Benz’s push for battery-electric vehicles is starting to pay off. On the company’s results call today, Mercedes CFO Harald Wilhelm revealed that the EQE has the same profit margin as the ICE-powered E-Class.
Wilhelm said, “At this point, the EQE margin is at the point of the E-Class margin,” according to European Automotive News. Wilhelm added that the EQE might even be ahead of the E-Class.
It’s worth noting that there’s a sizeable price difference between the two, with the E-Class starting at $55,000 in the US. Mercedes hasn’t disclosed EQE pricing for North America, but it starts at around €70,000 ($70,800) in Europe – a $16,000 price difference that is likely to help EQE match its ICE price.
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While that’s good news for EQE, the larger EQS doesn’t work as well. Wilhelm said the margins for luxury EV sedans trailed the S-Class, but numbers were increasing, with the EQE not far off its ICE sibling.
Mercedes has no plans to slow down its EV attack. The company plans to increase BEV sales through plug-in hybrids in the second half of this year. During the call, Mercedes CEO Ola Kallenius said that he wants 50 percent of the company’s electric car sales to be BEVs, prioritizing them over plug-in hybrids. The new EQE and EQS SUV will help the company achieve this goal.
Battery-electric vehicles still have hurdles to overcome before mass adoption occurs. One of them is cost. EVs are not only expensive for consumers to buy, they are also expensive for automakers to manufacture. Production costs and prices fall, and as a result, profit margins increase.
BEVs are still years away from achieving cost parity with ICE vehicles, but the gap is narrowing. Some automakers believe cost parity is just a few years away, while others predict that equivalence between the two will occur in the second half of the decade. Costs and prices dropped, which should be a big win for consumers.
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