Mercedes-Benz will soon celebrate the 125th anniversary of the invention of the car by its founder, Karl Benz. Famous car company and their leader made clear statement that cars powered solely by petrol and diesel engines will have virtually ceased to exist within 40 years. At least in production. Some petrolheads may still keep their V8’s.

By the words of Dr Volker Storkmann, by 2050, electric and plug-in hybrid cars will take care of most of our personal transport needs with hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles also playing a significant role. Dr Storkmann, who heads a team developing electric cars for Mercedes and Smart, calls it the second invention of the automobile. He believes that in future there will not be just a single drive technology but a broad mix of different drive systems. And Mercedes Benz SLS E-cell is juts a first of environment friendly and existing cars coming from Benz garage…

Interesting question is what would be the role of fuel companies? Will they takeover solar and wind infrastructure and build recharge stations? Time will tell…
What is your opinion? Mercedes is reinventing itself. Will Shell follow?