Mercedes: Ola Källenius’ contract gets extended until 2029
According to a media report, the supervisory board of Mercedes-Benz wants to extend the contract with CEO Ola Källenius ahead of schedule by another five years. The initial agreement would have expired in May 2024. Now, the 54-year-old could stay until at least mid-2029.
That is what the German Handelsblatt has learned from circles of the supervisory body. Ola Källenius took over the top spot at the Stuttgart-based car company from Dieter Zetsche in 2019 and is considered “unchallenged”. The Swede has prescribed an electric course for his company. Before the end of this decade, Mercedes-Benz will become purely electric – at least where market conditions permit.
In his second term of office, Källenius plans a major offensive in the mid-size electric class. As reported, Mercedes-Benz is preparing the market launch of the all-electric CLA and GLC. The electric variants of the CLA sedan and the GLC crossover will take on the Tesla Model 3 and the Model Y, respectively. Mercedes is no longer represented in this segment after it discontinued the EQC.
In May, it was said that the market launch of both electric models was planned for 2024, with the electric CLA offering a range of around 640 kilometres and the electric GLC, the successor to the EQC, around 480 kilometres. The Handelsblatt now specifies that the new generation CLA will launch at the end of 2024, and the GLC will follow at the beginning of 2025. In addition, according to the paper’s information, the C-Class will be electrified at the end of 2025. All three models are expected to be equipped with silicon carbide inverters and 800-volt technology.
The EV share of Mercedes-Benz sales is currently around ten per cent (BEV and PHEV). Källenius has postponed the original interim goal of achieving half of sales with pure electric cars and plug-in hybrids by 2025 to 2026. Another consequence of the Swede’s focus on luxury cars is that smaller vehicles, such as the A- and B-Class, will be phased out at Mercedes.
handelsblatt.com (in German)
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