The blue A-Class looks inconspicuous at first glance. It seems to be just another A-Class vehicle. A closer look is needed in order to reveal its true nature. The type designation at the rear is enough for people who are familiar with such things. But all is revealed at the latest when the compact sedan softly and almost silently comes to a halt and the driver steps out of the vehicle. There, where you would expect the fuel filler cap to be, she inserts not a pump nozzle but a Type 2 power plug. So the vehicle must be an A 250e (combined fuel consumption, weighted: 1.6–1.4 l/100 km, combined electricity consumption, weighted: 15.3–14.8 kWh/100 km, combined CO₂ emissions, weighted: 36–32 g/km* **). A plug-in hybrid variant of the A-Class was presented for the first time in August 2019. The first units of this vehicle are now in the hands of customers.
The demand for this model is currently very high, as it is for all of the plug-in hybrids bearing the famous star logo. In Europe, Mercedes-Benz sold four times as many cars with a dual drive system in the first half of 2020 as in the same period of last year, and the trend is continuing. On the German market, sales are of course being further boosted by the economic stimulus program that was passed by the federal government in June. This program provides up to €6,750 in subsidies for a plug-in hybrid car if you combine the environmental premium with the innovation premium. The automaker finances half of the environmental premium.
During the first six months of 2020, almost 50,000 plug-in hybrid vehicles of all makes were registered for the first time in the German market. That was more than in all of 2019, despite the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. In the third quarter of 2020, Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) registered a further 56,000 new plug-in hybrids. In July and August, the best-seller of any brand was the Mercedes-Benz A 250e, while the top seller in September was the Mercedes-Benz GLC 300e (combined fuel consumption, weighted: 2.2 l/100 km, combined electricity consumption, weighted: 16.5 kWh/100 km, combined CO₂ emissions, weighted: 50 g/km* **).