Three plug-in Benzes before year end

Mercedes-Benz Australia will roll out three new plug-in hybrid models before the end of 2015, paving the way for the new drivetrain technology to swing buyers away from other alternative-energy offerings in the local product range.

The three vehicles are the C 350e, the S 500e and the GLE 500e, which is a plug-in SUV bearing the new name for what was previously known as the M-Class family. David McCarthy, Senior Manager for Public Relations, Product and Corporate Communications at Mercedes-Benz Australia, expects all three to be here by Christmas, but admits the GLE 500e may fall over into next year.

"Our aim is to have all three here this year," he said.

It's a game-changing manoeuvre from Mercedes-Benz, beating its prestige German rivals to market with a plug-in hybrid in the prestige medium segment. And the race is on to see whether Stuttgart can gazump Ingolstadt with its own plug-in hybrid ahead of Audi's Q7 e-tron. Neither company will be first on the podium for a plug-in hybrid however; Mitsubishi's Outlander PHEV was there before the rest, and Porsche has a prestige offering in the form of the Cayenne S e-Hybrid.

McCarthy has told motoring.com.au that all three plug-in models will reach Australia, but dates are yet to be locked in.

"I suspect C 350e will probably be first, because the opportunity there is greater than with [S 500e]" McCarthy said. "You need to almost top-and-tail the range to start."

It's arguably the same thinking driving Audi, which has launched the A3 e-tron hatch and plans to follow up with the Q7 e-tron early next year. Benz's equivalent to the plug-in Q7 – as a technology-leading prestige SUV rather than as a direct competitor – will be the GLE 500e. McCarthy doesn't expect to see the plug-in GLE until sometime next year.

The S 500e, like the C-Class plug-in, will arrive late this year. None of the three alternative-energy models will absolve owners of the need to fill a petrol tank or recharge the battery, but the sort of buyer who might be tempted will live a short distance from work, with an occasional need to travel further without range anxiety. It is likely they'll be smitten with the blend of advanced technology and Benz's typical attention to engineering detail.

For pricing, Benz hopes the S 500e will be no more expensive than the S 500 V8 variant (currently $286,600), providing buyers an alternative to the performance model. The C 350e will cost more than the C 300 BlueTEC Hybrid, which is currently sold here for $74,900. McCarthy believes the plug-in model can be brought in below $100,000, and noted subsequently that Benz has previously reduced the price premium for non-plug-in hybrids from $20,000 to $10,000. If the prestige brand can achieve that same sort of result for the plug-in C-Class, the C 350e would come in around $85,000 or thereabouts. That would place it comfortably within the gap between the C 300 and the C 450 AMG Sports.

Benz expects to sell no more than perhaps a dozen units of the S-Class plug-in over a 12-month period. The C-Class will be the 'volume-selling' plug-in locally – and that's important to the three-pointed star.

"Bringing that [technology] further down the scale, that's where you're going to get the sales traction."

And that sales traction is a means to an end as much as an end in itself. More sales means higher profile on the streets, increased word of mouth, improved understanding of the benefits plug-in hybrids can bring. The C-Class would achieve all that more efficiently than the S-Class, for obvious reasons.

Oddly, however, McCarthy believes the GLE 500e is likely to be a stronger-selling model than a plug-in version of the smaller GLC (previously known in other markets as the GLK).

In due course, the plug-in hybrids may eventually make the 'mild hybrid' models obsolete in Australia, and it will be a long time before they're ousted by battery EVs or fuel-cell vehicles, which are respectively constrained by range and infrastructure issues.

"Plug-in hybrids are going to be a huge part of the future," says McCarthy, "because you don't need extra infrastructure."

Benz has seen a gradual uptake in diesel variants of passenger cars traditionally sold in Australia in petrol-only form. Diesel sales are now common in the S-Class range, for instance. The early adopters and technology-savvy buyers do influence broader sales over time; and plug-ins represent the next wave of technology, but it's easier for a prestige brand to accomplish that change in sales mix than a budget brand could manage.

In the longer term, McCarthy predicts we'll see an E-Class plug-in, a sub-C-Class plug-in (logically a B-Class perhaps) and other SUV plug-in models. Stuttgart is clearly pinning its hopes on cars that you can drive interstate, but plug into a powerpoint in your garage for the daily commute.