Now the election is over maybe we’ll now get some sensible discussion on electric cars and just maybe Bill Shorten will get some time to study them and understand them a little better. I’ve mentioned before Mercedes-Benz’s first electric vehicle, the EQC mid-size SUV, due in Australia in October pricing expected around the 140,000 mark similar to Jaguar’s I-Pace. Mercedes has made a major shift in R and D funding in full electric and electrified powertrains as it moves to a carbon-neutral product portfolio by 2039 while it expects 50 percent of its global sales by 2030 will be made up of EV’s and plug-in hybrids. Their investment in electrification is huge – on its forthcoming EQ models alone it has spent 16.1 billion Australian. But as it tries to engineer the cost out of electric cars it concedes that price parity with regular combustion-engined cars will be a long time coming. Mercedes-Benz CEO suggesting it was still many years away. I’m David Berthon

(Image: Mercedes new EQC electric SUV due in October.)

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