New Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen to go electric

One of the most iconic and questionable cars on the market - the Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen - is set to go electric.

The announcement came from the head of Mercedes-Benz chairman of the board of management, Ola Kallenius, who told automotive media as part of a phone conference that the “G is going electric”. 

The announcement comes on the back of a record year for the G-Wagen globally, after the model was revamped for the modern era late in 2018 for the 2019 model year. In Australia, just 48 G-Wagens were sold in 2019, but here, it’s a $259,600 SUV with a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8. 

The G-Wagen transcends all segments, and almost the logic of the car industry. "It’s like its own company,” said Mr Kallenius. 

“People love this car. We had record-breaking sales of the new G last year as we had rolled out the full production of the completed updated G,” said Mr Kallenius. Figures seen by CarsGuide suggest that 8682 G-Wagens were sold globally in 2019, an increase of 43 per cent on the previous year.

“Yes, the G is going to go electric. We’ve kicked off the concept work on this, so in a few years you will be able to go electric with the G as well.

“Modern luxury is going to be sustainable modern luxury,” he said, stating that the brand is rapidly expanding its electrified offering across the broad.

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“We’re ramping up quickly - we’ll introduce a whole host of electric vehicles in the next two years. It is true that the cost structure of electric vehicles is higher than what we have been used to on combustion-based vehicles, so many of the cars we will introduce as a premium luxury maker, we will focus on … a lot on the upper segments in our portfolio.

“We feel that as volumes go up, from tens of thousands of vehicles in our case to - relatively soon - hundreds of thousands of vehicles, we can start reaping benefits of scale, in combination with cost improvements through innovation.

“So this is a trend that is going to pick up pace, and we have made full commitment to writing the electrical chapter for the auto industry in the future,” said Mr Kallenius.