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Mercedes has a lot of help in this fight: the writing is not on the wall, it's in the law. That should be quite helpful in convincing employees to not only not fight the change, but to push for the change. At some point survival instinct kicks in.

ICE cars will be banned (either already law, or being discussed) in: Norway (2025), Netherlands (2025), India (2030), Germany (maybe 2030), France (2040), China (date unknown yet).

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As the very home country of Mercedes/Daimler, Opel, Volkswagen and other car manufacturers and the (AFAIK) only unlimited-speed public roads in the world (Autobahn), I (German citizen) pretty much doubt our government will start a serious effort to get ICE cars banned in the next 3 years. Maybe if EVs get significant traction in that timeframe, they'll propose such a law to look progressive for the next election.

Even if Germany is late to this game, it doesn't change much if enough countries ban ICE. The German auto industry will have to follow: as you probably know Mercedes (and Volkswagen, BMW, etc.) export a lot, so they simply won't have a choice. And I'm sure the numerous engineers and laborers building the cars who don't want to lose their jobs will understand it very well too...

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