Mercedes Sticks with EVs After Making a Few Adjustments

April 30, 2026

Roberto Baldwin

The electric Mercedes CLA just looks like a Mercedes. (Mercedes)

It can be tough to know what drivers want. Vehicles are designed years before they hit the market, and between the time the look of a new model is locked down and when it hits showrooms, the zeitgeist can change so much that prospective buyers are already over the look.

"The design of the EQE and EQS was more polarizing than the one of the CLA,” Mathias Geisen, member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, responsible for Sales & Customer Experience, told SAE Media. "We believed that customers wanted to have a completely differentiated design."

The bulbous look of the EQ lineup didn't gel with some potential customers. The automaker learned that its customers wanted an S-Class to look like an S-Class, regardless of powertrain. "Going forward, you'll not see a differentiated design for our EVs compared to the ones with combustion engines, because that has not been appreciated by our customers," Geisen said.

The electric CLA was the prime driver of an increase in Mercedes' EV sales, which increased 3% in the fourth quarter of 2025 and 18% compared to the third quarter of 2025.

The uptick could be about more than just the look. Mercedes introduced its MB.OS SDV architecture recently. It gives the automakers additional control over the development of the vehicle and, more importantly increases its ability to push updates to the vehicles. The update coincided with the automaker transitioning to an 800-volt architecture for its vehicles.

Like others before it, including BMW, Mercedes can build a vehicle offered with a gas, hybrid, or electric powertrain on the same production line, allowing vehicles like the hybrid CLA to be built next to an electric CLA at the same facility. "We have a high degree of flexibility, and we have turned more or less our operations around the world into a position where we can make both [gas and electric vehicles],” Mercedes CEO Ola Källenius told a media roundtable recently.

Källenius told the group that, like many automakers, Mercedes expected the percentage of EVs sold in the mid 2020s to be higher than where it actually is. "It is very difficult to predict the future in an exact way, especially if you're in a transformation of this magnitude," Källenius said. "Do you then, as Mercedes, sit back and say, 'Okay, it's going a little bit slower. Let's stop that sport for a while, and we'll get back to it later.' I believe – I strongly believe – that would be the wrong choice for Mercedes.”

The automaker thus decided to stick to it’s electrification plan while making the adjustments needed to make their EVs more desirable to the public.

"So we have made the very clear decision that our original game plan, if you will, that by the end of this decade in all segments, and for every meaningful portfolio position, Mercedes will have an electrical choice, because for some markets that will be farther ahead, that will be a necessity," Källenius said.

As for the next big jump in electrification, Mercedes CTO Jörg Burzer believes that Mercedes will have a solid-state powered EV after 2030. If Mercedes continues with its strategy here, if things need to be adjusted again, the company can pivot to keep up with the latest in electrification in a way that intrigues customers.