The rumors that Mercedes-Benz might be facing the need to optimize its lineup and thus cut production costs are now officially confirmed.
Markus Schafer, the company’s R&D Director, said that maintaining platforms only used for one or two cars is not financially viable. Mercedes is currently focusing on the development EVs, which requires substantial investments, and may therefore need to discontinue certain exotic and/or luxury models.
In particular, this may be referring to the G-Class, S-Class and the AMG GT range. It is unlikely that the company just decides to put them out of production, but it may want to switch them to cheaper, more manageable platforms, as well as discontinue some of the high-end specs that are the costliest to produce.
As for the eight- and twelve-cylinder engines, their fate will be decided when the Euro-7 goes live. No details are available to date, but the company’s engineering crew has repeatedly pointed out that ‘four-cylinder engines are decidedly preferable to the V12s.’