Electric cars only half as profitable at first: Daimler

Fabrice Coffrini | AFP | Getty Images

CEO of German carmaker Daimler and Mercedes-Benz, Dieter Zetsche.

The company’s Mercedes-Benz brand is preparing to launch the “EQ” electric car, which shares the underpinnings of the Mercedes-Benz GLC, a model that sells at a rate of around 1,000 cars a day. If the EQ proves popular, profits could take a hit initially, Daimler said at an investor say on Monday.

“In the beginning of the cycle we believe that we will have to face a significantly lower margin.

For some vehicles half of the margin of the vehicles they replace,” Frank Lindenberg, Vice President of Finance and Controlling at Mercedes-Benz Cars, said at the event in Sindelfingen, southwest Germany.

Daimler will produce the GLC and the EQ at the same plant, allowing it to adjust production of electric cars in line with demand. A rapid switch to electric cars may prevent it from meeting its return on sales target, Lindenberg said.

“We are still aiming for a 10 percent return on sales, but have to be prepared for a kind of transition, with a corridor of 8 to 10 percent,” he said.

As part of the cost savings plan, Daimler wants to save 1 billion euros from fixed costs, and another billion from research and development and capital expenditure. The remainder would come mainly from product costs.

Daimler said that by 2025, the purchasing cost of electric cars would likely reach parity with combustion equivalents, which could accelerate migration to battery powered vehicles.

Electric cars are currently more expensive than combustion-engined cars because of battery costs.