Future Mercedes-Benz EVs Will Look Like Their ICE Twins

Mercedes-Benz has revised its EV strategy, with future models will look closer to their respective ICE-powered twins.

After years of subpar sales numbers and tough critics, Mercedes-Benz is finally taking a page out of BMW’s book by unifying the design language between its all-electric and combustion lineups. This means that future Mercedes EVs will look closer to their respective ICE-powered twins, as they will adopt a "coherent design language" across the whole portfolio, its official statement reads.

With this new styling direction, the Stuttgart-based automaker hopes that it will help to negate the declining sales volume of its EV models. In 2024 alone, the automaker’s total EV sales volume has dropped significantly by 23%, with only 185,100 units shipped worldwide. While said figure is still better than Audi’s total EV sales volume of 164,000 units, it is still far from what BMW managed to achieve last year, as the Bavarian shipped a total of 368,523 EVs globally, and that even excludes EVs from the MINI portfolio.

Next-gen Mercedes-Benz CLA (left) and its concept twin, the Mercedes-Benz Concept CLA Class (right)

The telltale sign for this strategy shift was not only being foretold by the subpar sales figures for Merc’s EQ EVs, but also from the upcoming Mercedes-Benz CLA, which will be offered in both ICE and fully electric forms.

New Mercedes-Benz Electric G-Class (left) & the newly-updated Mercedes-Benz G-Class (right)

On top of that, several of the marque’s current EVs also looks similar or share the same platform to its ICE-powered counterparts, with key examples including the new electric G-Class, which is heavily related to the ICE-powered off-roader, while the facelifted EQS sedan adopts a more ‘conventional’ front grille design that is akin to one primed on the S-Class.

As of now, Mercedes-Benz hasn't given any details on what we can expect their future EVs look like, but we’d like to refer back to the upcoming CLA saloon as a reference point. From both its pre-production and concept versions, we can see that the next-gen CLA combines multiple elements from both Merc's past EQ EVs and some of its current ICE-powered models, so we can expect future Merc EVs to follow along the same line as this.

Besides the next-gen CLA, Mercedes-Benz is also poised to introduce several new and updated models in the near future, with the closest one being a major update for the S-Class flagship saloon, followed by a baby G-Class, and replacements for both the EQA and EQB EV SUVs.