Mercedes has quietly sold off its own-branded European charging network to rival provider Electra, in a move that opens up 800 fast charging locations to Mercedes drivers across the continent. 

The sell-off was buried in Mercedes’ quarterly financial update and appears to have taken place over the summer, with Electra announcing the results of the deal this week. 

The Mercedes charging network was believed to have been valued at around £80m, but there’s no indication of exactly what Mercedes got from the Electra deal. 

It’s business as usual for Mercedes drivers, though, who benefit from preferential rates on an Electra network that’s just gained 374 plugs across 47 charging hubs.

The deal is understood to just cover the charging infrastructure, and no staff have been moved over from Mercedes to Electra. 

It’s something of a U-turn for Mercedes, though – at the launch of the network in 2023, Mercedes announced grand ambitions for 2,000 sites across the world, with plans for rapid charging hubs across Europe by 2027. 

The first charging hub was opened in Mannheim in Germany, the city where company founder Karl Benz came up with his Patent-Motorwagen, the world’s first petrol-driven car in 1886.

The German carmaker still operates charge points in the USA and China, which will remain part of Mercedes for the moment. 

The third quarter financial update issued by Mercedes in October showed the income from the charge network sale lumped in with some other cash, but the overall picture from the accounts was of a company not in the same financial straits as Volkswagen, but at least battening down the hatches. 

Mercedes has a voluntary redundancy scheme in place for employees who wish to step away from the business, and is restricting spend and making cuts where it can. 

Models like the EQE and the Maybach version of the EQS are being dumped and bosses are threatening plant closures. 

Lower profit margins on electric vehicles and the slump in China’s new car market are being blamed for the difficulties – proof that even having the European Car of the Year on the books doesn’t shield you from the prevailing economic winds.