Mercedes examines commercial vehicle model portfolio as diesel debate slows sales

SINDELFINGEN, Germany (Reuters) – Daimler (DAIGn.DE) is currently reviewing the product portfolio of its vans division, where sales have been hit hard by doubts about the cleanliness of diesel vehicles, said Tuesday the Mercedes-Benz executive Marcus Breitschwerdt.

"To optimize our performance, it also means reviewing and realigning our strategic direction," Mercedes-Benz van manager Breitschwerdt said at the launch of a Mercedes-Benz van.

Daimler will look for opportunities to reduce costs, including reviewing the company's product portfolio, he said.

"We are looking at what we have and what we could have," said Breitschwerdt, adding that the mid-size pickup in class X did not deliver the sales volumes the company hoped for.

"The X-Class is a niche product," said the Daimler manager at an event in Sindelfingen, near Stuttgart. In addition, Mercedes-Benz was not interested in the segment of large format vans, Breitschwerdt said.

He added that the van division had too many management levels and that the company was looking for ways to reduce fixed costs without resorting to forced redundancies. Daimler's commercial vehicle division employs 26,000 people.

Mercedes-Benz has launched the EQV, an electric van offering a theoretical range of about 400 kilometers and allowing the battery to charge to 80% of its capacity in less than 45 minutes, said Daimler.

The Mercedes-Benz EQV will be on sale in the exhibition halls in early 2020, the company said.

Breitschwerdt said it expects that 15% to 25% of vans sales by 2025 will be all-electric variants in the passenger segment and that it plans to diversify the base of suppliers of cells to ensure a sufficient supply of batteries when production increases.

Breitschwerdt also stated that, although autonomous driving is possible from a technological point of view, the commercial models of autonomous vehicle operation have not yet been tested.