Mercedes Meets CO2 Target With Late-Year Surge in EV Sales

(Bloomberg) -- Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz complied with Europe’s tighter emissions limits last year as a late surge in plug-in vehicle sales spared the world’s largest luxury-car maker from fines.

Mercedes shipped just under 160,000 plug-in hybrid and fully-electric cars in 2020, with the fourth quarter accounting for about half of those deliveries, Daimler Chief Executive Officer Ola Kallenius told reporters on Thursday. He had cautioned in the past that meeting the emissions target would be a close call.

“The good trend we’ve seen in the third quarter continued in the fourth quarter driven by China, but not only China as other markets improved as well,” Kallenius said of overall demand. Mercedes plans to speed up the rollout of electric models and is committed to meeting more stringent emissions rules in the coming years, he said.

Daimler navigated the biggest industry slump since World War II better than initially feared and also made progress restructuring its sprawling industrial operations to bolster returns. It will publish detailed sales results for 2020 on Friday.

PSA Group and Volvo Cars, along with BMW AG and Renault SA, are among carmakers expected to meet the EU’s emissions rules. Volkswagen AG has said it might narrowly miss its target.

Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler will introduce the electric compact car EQA this month after rolling out the latest iteration of its flagship S-Class sedan last year. It will launch four purely-battery powered vehicles in 2021 to step up its challenge of Tesla Inc. The company presented a large cockpit screen earlier Thursday that will be introduced in the electric S-Class sibling EQS later this year.

Cockpit Screen

The EQS will offer a battery range of about 700 kilometers (435 miles). The new cockpit screen, some 55 inches wide, offers access to key vehicle functions via the brand’s multimedia system dubbed MBUX.

“The MBUX Hyperscreen is both the brain and nervous system of the car,” Mercedes-Benz technology chief Sajjad Khan said in a statement. Daimler aims to generate 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in earnings from digital services in 2025, a target Kallenius reiterated on Thursday.

The CEO also acknowledged that Mercedes-Benz is affected by an industrywide supply bottleneck of semiconductor parts that has hit larger German rival Volkswagen AG. The manufacturer is doing everything it can to minimize effects on production, Kallenius said.