Mercedes-Benz Cars aims to slash CO₂ emissions by more than 50 percent by end of this decade.

Electrification of the Mercedes-Benz portfolio has been progressing in leaps and bounds for some time. The aim is to achieve up to 50 percent share of plug-in hybrid and BEVs by 2025 on the way toward going all-electric by 2030 wherever market conditions allow. The portfolio already includes six, and soon nine, all-electric models. To-date, Mercedes-Benz has unveiled the EQA, the EQB, the EQC (WLTP: combined electrical consumption: 25-21,3 kWh/100 km; combined CO₂ emissions: 0 g/km) , the EQS, the EQE 350+ (WLTP: combined electrical consumption: 18,7 15,9 kWh/100 km, combined CO₂ emissions: 0 g/100 km)* as well as the EQV. Further models will follow: the EQS SUV, the EQE SUV and the EQT. The company plans to assert its leadership in electric mobility among commercial vans, too, through the ongoing electrification of its entire model range.

In the lifecycle of an electric vehicle, using renewable energy for charging is a significant lever for helping to avoid CO₂ emissions. Mercedes-Benz enables “green charging”  at all of the around 300,000 public charging points in the Mercedes me Charge network throughout Europe and ensures that a sufficient amount of electricity from renewable sources is fed into the grid.

The battery is the biggest lever for reducing CO₂. With the current EU electricity mix, supply chain and production account for more than half of the lifecycle CO₂ emissions. This proportion can be reduced significantly through the use of renewable energy. By transitioning to CO₂-neutral cell production, it is possible to cut emissions for the production of the entire battery pack by 20 percent. Additional CO₂ savings are expected to be achieved through further measures - e.g., by improving the anode and cathode production process. Strategic partnerships have thus been formed to develop and industrialize highly advanced and competitive cell technologies. With more than 800 watt-hours per litre at cell level by mid-decade, high-silicon anodes offer great potential in respect of energy density. At the same time, Mercedes-Benz expects to be able to use LFP batteries in its series-production vehicles. These batteries have a completely cobalt-free cathode. Together with research partners the company is also working on solid-state batteries. To keep control of the battery lifecycle in-house, the company is starting a CO₂-neutral recycling factory in Kuppenheim, Germany, to recycle end-of-life electric vehicle batteries using a new hydrometallurgical technique which increases the recycling rate to 96 percent.

Mercedes-Benz is setting up a green steel supply chain to massively expand its use of low-CO2 and zero CO₂ steel. Working closely with steel suppliers, the company is consciously steering clear of carbon offsets, focusing instead on the avoidance and reduction of CO₂ emissions. In 2021, the company became the first car maker to take an equity stake in Swedish start-up H2 Green Steel (H2GS), with the aim of introducing green steel in a number of production models by as early as 2025. Through the adoption of a circular economy approach, Mercedes-Benz is steadily increasing the proportion of secondary aluminium it uses. Furthermore, it is the first automotive manufacturer to commit to sourcing only primary aluminium certified by the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) for its stamping plants and foundries in Europe in future. This confirms that the raw materials are obtained and processed responsibly and in an ecological manner irrespective of the source country — from mining through melting and refining all the way to the gates of the Mercedes-Benz plants. This requirement will be rolled out to other locations outside Europe in the medium term.

Several sustainable materials are already in series production in some vehicle models. These include seat upholstery fabrics from 100 percent recycled PET bottles as well as floor coverings made with yarns from fishing nets recovered and fabric remnants from old carpets. The EQS and EQE will even feature cable ducting made with recycled landfill waste. Indeed, the components in the EQS, manufactured with efficient use of resources through recycled and renewable raw materials, already weigh more than 80 kilograms. By applying its “Design for Environment” and “Design for Circularity” approaches to the selection of materials, Mercedes-Benz Cars aims to increase the use of recycled materials per vehicle by 2030 to 40 percent.