This electric car was axed and no-one noticed: Have EVs made a false start or are they picking up speed? Opinion

The Mercedes-Benz EQC was launched with much fanfare and excitement in Sweden in 2018.

Yet it died quietly in the second quarter of 2023 with no fanfare and no official announcement. Instead, it was dropped and forgotten.

Meanwhile, Tesla is pumping out Model 3s and Model Ys at speed and BYD is growing its business with a diverse range of electric vehicles (EVs).

This is a microcosm of the electric car market at the moment — it's either runaway success or painful failure.

Mercedes hasn’t given up on the EQC and will introduce an all-new replacement, but it’s not expected to arrive for a while yet as the German brand completely reinvents the model.

The company is now talking about “tactical flexibility” for its EVs, which is a fancy way of saying it will hedge its bets on the transition towards EVs by making its model platforms compatible with either electric powertrains or internal combustion engines (ICE).

That’s arguably the right strategy for the short- to mid-term, with the majority of new car buyers still favouring ICE models and likely to do so into the next decade. Quite simply, the EV market has not accelerated at the same pace some brands expected and now there needs to be a recalibration.

Analysing the local EV market is trickier than a few months ago, with Tesla and Polestar leaving the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries over its resistance to the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard.

Still, it is possible, with EV sales up 16.0 per cent year-to-date after July for a 7.9 per cent market share.

If we go back to full year 2023 sales results, EV sales were up 161 per cent for the year. That’s amazing growth, but it comes off a very low base and EVs still represented only 7.1 per cent of all new vehicles sold in Australia last year. By comparison, ICE vehicles (petrol and diesel) made up 79.5 per cent of the market. It doesn’t take a mathematician to realise that’s the majority.

Car companies are clearly in a difficult position, with legislation around the world pushing them down an electrified pathway, even if consumers are seemingly not ready for such a radical shift. It puts the brands that have publicly committed to going all-electric within the next decade with a difficult decision to make. While Mercedes has decided to retain its flexibility, Audi has publicly stated it will stop developing ICE powertrains by 2026, and Volvo has gone a step further by committing to ICE-free sales from 2026 in Australia. Other brands, like Bentley, have already begun to rollback plans for a holistic switch and instead transition more slowly with hybrids.

It’s not a coincidence that the brands we’re talking about here are luxury and prestige ones, with the mainstream volume ones knowing all-too-well that trying to make the switch to pure electric now is simply too soon. Brands like Hyundai, which already offers multiple EV models, speaks openly about offering petrol, diesel and hybrid models until at least the end of next decade, potentially longer.

This doesn’t mean EVs have had a false start or are inherently flawed, but it does suggest the industry pushed the accelerator a little too hard and will need to slow its expectations. The Mercedes-Benz EQC may have been a mistake for the brand, but it was a starting point for a range of models (EQA, EQB, EQE and EQS) that have worked better and started the brand on its electric journey.

This is a polarising issue for many people, with strong opinions on both sides, but there seems to be little doubt that in the long run that EVs will become the dominant force — it will just take longer than originally expected.