German automakers recalibrate luxury lineups amid cooling EV demand

With electric vehicle sales growth slowing from once-breakneck speeds, Germany's luxury brands have had to recalibrate their EV rollouts.

Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Mini say they are investing in combustion engines today even as they plan for an electric tomorrow.

Mercedes-Benz had vowed to go all-electric by 2030 "where market conditions allowed." But with its EV sales muted in key markets, the brand plans to develop internal combustion and electric cars in parallel for longer than originally thought.

"The speed of the transformation — it's almost impossible to foresee how long it will take," Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius said July 26. "We are ... well positioned to play the flexibility card into the 2030s."

In contrast, rival BMW's long-term strategy of spreading its investments across ICE, hybrid, BEV and even hydrogen has proven prescient. BMW will update key gasoline-powered crossover models in the next few years, while it pushes ahead on the electrification front.

"We want to make sure that we can cater to all these customer groups," Sebastian Mackensen, BMW of North America CEO, told Automotive News in January. "We think that the approach to [staying] flexible and [having] one car with different powertrains is a very good one."

The brand expects EVs to account for half of its sales globally by 2030.

To help get there, BMW will initially launch six battery-powered models based on the all-electric Neue Klasse platform, including electric variants of the workhorse X3 and bestselling X5 crossovers.

Volkswagen Group's Audi brand, meanwhile, is still pursuing an all-electric lineup by 2033.

The German luxury brand will be taking a big step toward that goal with the launch of its Premium Platform Electric architecture, which will underpin two new models in the near term: the Q6 E-tron crossover and A6 E-tron sportback sedan.