‘This Car Shouldn’t Even Exist’ Mercedes Exec Fumed About Electric AMG GT According To German Publication

It smells like a campfire outside my window, which is true for many people living in the United States right now. I’ve been told that out-of-control Canadian wildfires are to blame, though I’d also believe the scent is emanating from Stuttgart, where a German business magazine just lit up the company and its CEO. Sabrina Carpenter voice: Oh boy.

When everyone was pledging to go full-EV or nearly full-EV by 2035, Ola Källenius had a different plan. Mercedes was going to shoot for 2030, and the EQS, EQE, and related SUVS were going to lead the way. The problem, as any regular Morning Dump reader will know, is that those products weren’t very good, and even if they had been good, the market in the United States wasn’t there. What’s a CEO to do?

General Motors is the 2nd largest EV seller in the United States, albeit a distant second behind Tesla. How many new EVs can we expect in the coming years? Uh, just the one, actually. General Motors has plenty right now and needs to pivot back towards making sedans and other cars. Still, GM has to be ready for China, because China is coming, according to Bill Ford.

That’s heavy. Let’s lighten it up a little. Do you like 7-Eleven? Do you like cars? I’ve got great news for you.

‘It Was Too Late To Stop It’

So far as I know, no one from The Autopian was invited to the Mercedes launch for the AMG GT EV in Los Angeles, even though our company is based there. Hopefully it wasn’t because we’ve written a fair bit of criticism about their product line, about the AMG GT, and about their claim to have invented the car; I like the brand and I generally like the cars, so that would be kind of a bummer.

Will this stop us from reporting on their woes or writing honestly about how we feel about them? Of course not. To paraphrase the other Michael Bolton: Why should I change, they’re the ones who…uh, are having some challenges.

It seems like our collective groan at the new electric AMG GT was shared by at least one executive at the company as reported by Manager Magazin‘s Margaret Hucko, who wrote this morning about the tenure of Källenius and the launch event:

“This car shouldn’t even exist,” one of the Mercedes executives fumed. “But it was too late to stop it.” The electric GT was already too far along in its development. The same applies to the two electric derivatives. First, a high-performance SUV will hit the market next year, followed by an SUV coupé.

According to the Manager Magazin report, the push to make fast EVs for AMG has already cost over $1 billion. The whole Mercedes effort to make EVs has been strange and stands in contrast to BMW, which has just quietly built decent electric cars without making a big deal out of it. So far this year, Mercedes has only reached an 11.6% share of BEVs, whereas BMW is at 17.7%. KRS One voice: A real thug is a thug that’s hush.

Allegedly persuaded by Tesla’s stock price, Källenius went super hard on the concepts of luxury and electrification, at the expense of either mass market models or gas-powered profit centers like vans. It’s how we ended up with the expensive and objectively mediocre EQS. [Ed Note: To be fair, pretty much every automaker saw Tesla’s stock price and proceeded to set billions of dollars on fire trying to chase it. Also, I like the way the new AMG GT looks. It’s wacky, and I like wacky. -DT]

There’s some more gossip in the piece specifically around the EQS and a reminder that Källenius was involved there, too:

But Källenius’s passion for eco-friendly vehicles also came to an abrupt end in late 2023. When the supervisory board met to review the 2024 plans, sales of the EQS and EQE electric sedans had plummeted by 90 percent. Källenius, then head of development, had spearheaded these models, hoping they would usher in a new era for the company. Mercedes had invested around 5 billion euros in the development of the EQS, EQE, and two related SUVs alone, with billions more spent on manufacturing, marketing, and all the associated costs. But now the disaster was obvious to the board members. “It was clear then that these cars were the biggest failures in the company’s history,” says one board member who was present at the time.

Yikes!

This is a rough report for Källenius, and I want to be fair because he’s getting a second swing at some of these vehicles and they seem good. The Mercedes-Benz VLE van looks awesome and is apparently more than decent. The new CLA is also extremely promising and maybe, maybe, we’ll eventually get to drive one.

GM’s Only New EV Will Be The Hyundai Van Thing

There’s a story in Automotive News about how GM, which is very EV-heavy, is going to consider building more hybrids, sedans, and other vehicles that’ll make the market happy (and that the company probably shouldn’t have stopped building). What jumped out at me was the revelation that GM is slow-rolling EVs so much that it’ll only have one debut the rest of this decade.

GM’s plans to launch new EVs this decade largely have been pushed back or canceled. A commercial van codeveloped with Hyundai is now the only new EV expected to be released by GM through 2030. But it will make some updates to current electric models, including a redesigned Equinox EV around 2028.

That van looks super cool, though, and I think GM’s brands have the EV market fairly well covered when you consider they’ve got everything from a new Bolt up to a Celestiq. Ariana Grande voice: I want it.

Bill Ford Admits Chinese Cars Can’t Be Kept Out Forever

China continues to be an existential threat to the automotive industry, and it’s likely that some sort of bipartisan support will push a bill to effectively ban Chinese car sales will become law sooner rather than later. Does that mean we won’t see Chinese cars ever? Ford Exec Chairman Bill Ford doesn’t think that’s realistic:

“We have to go toe-to-toe with China,” said Bill Ford, the automaker’s executive chair, at an Axios event in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. “We can’t expect to keep them out forever, and we have to be able to beat them at their own game.”

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Bill Ford also acknowledged that politics sure is making the making of things hard:

“Ford, the great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford, said Tuesday that U.S. plans must include an industrial policy that keeps the country competitive with major automotive hubs like China, Japan and South Korea. It must also be able to withstand policy changes ushered in by elections, he said.
“Our lead times are longer than political lead times,” Ford said. “I think an industrial policy that is a bipartisan one—which, as I say today, even saying that might sound difficult—we really need that.””

Kacey Musgraves voice: Yup.

Check Out This Sweet 7/11 GT-R Hot Wheels

Is 7-Eleven actually cool or have I just been Larry Chen-pilled? Either way, 7-Eleven is having a moment, and the latest clothing/accessories/fashion collection from the brand will include this handsome GT-R. From a press release:

This year’s collectible puts the spotlight on the high-performance 2017 Nissan GT-R (R35), a legendary model beloved by car enthusiasts. The model features a sleek white wrap with 7-Eleven’s iconic logo on the hood and sides, creating the kind of die-cast livery collectors love to discover.

Charlie XCX voice: Vroom vroom.

What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD

I would accept the argument that the Sophie-produced “Vroom Vroom” from Charlie XCX is sound-forward that we really haven’t quite caught up to it yet. Man, I miss Sophie.

The Big Question

What’s the best car Mercedes currently makes?

Top photo: Mercedes-Benz