Mercedes-Benz launches new E-Class, its final ICE vehicle

Mercedes-Benz on Tuesday announced the launch of the German luxury automaker’s final new combustion engine model - the next generation of the E-Class. The new vehicle will be built in Germany and China and go on sale in Europe in the third quarter of this year.

It will become available in the United States by the end of the year and China in early 2024.

Follow-up models of the E-Class will be built on a new platform adapted for battery-powered cars, though this generation will already be available as a hybrid.

"Building a battery in retrospectively is always a compromise," Chief Technology Officer Markus Schaefer said at a media roundtable. "We have an all-electric E-Class, and it's the EQE."

Mercedes-Benz is targeting exclusively battery-electric sales globally by 2030, but has caveated this ambition by adding it will only aim to do so "where markets allow".

The carmaker said in July 2021 it was dropping investment in combustion engine and plug-in hybrid technology by 80% between 2019 and 2026 and investing 40 billion euros ($44 billion) in electrification between 2022 and 2030.

By Michael Elkins | [email protected]

You May Also Be Interested In

• UBS Reiterates Buy Rating on General Motors (GM) as Defense Opportunity in Focus
• U.S. Bank hires Eric Levine to head healthcare payments unit
• TEOCO selects Strategy One platform for telecom invoice analytics