Mercedes-Benz CEO says cars are surprisingly big in China! Is it possible that at the end of car building, we can only "make the best out of big things"?

“In China, cars need to be big, very big, shockingly big,” said Mercedes-Benz CEO Kallenius. According to a report by Germany's AutoWeek on the evening of the 11th, he announced that Mercedes-Benz's product planning in China must be completely centered on the preferences of Chinese consumers.

He warned that if it cannot keep up with its competitors in terms of body size, space design and digital intelligence, "it will be eliminated."

Among the three major competitive tracks in his words, "big" is the first to hit sensitive points in the industry.

The continued “expansion” of domestic passenger cars is an objective fact. Data shows that from 2017 to 2022, the average length of domestic passenger cars increased by more than 130 mm. From 2020 to 2023, the width of mainstream models generally increased by 50 to 70 mm, and the width of many household SUVs exceeded two meters.

Entering 2026, the SUV market share continues to rise, and car companies have increased their investment in large-size models.

Kallenius's industry observations are not groundless, and the demand for large space has a solid realistic foundation. Domestic family structures and travel habits have changed. Scenarios such as families with multiple children, three generations traveling together, long-distance self-driving during holidays, camping and carrying luggage are becoming more and more common. When many users buy cars today, they value the comfort of the ride and the room for luggage loading. This is the core reason why "big cars" are so popular.

However, as the space advantage continues to be enlarged and size gradually becomes an important marketing label, the trend of "size only" also grows.

But the "bill" of a large car goes far beyond the purchase price paid by consumers.

The first is the obvious inconvenience in daily use. When the parking space is tight, it is difficult to fully open the door, and the vehicle is in a dilemma on the narrow road; the larger turning radius also increases the probability of collision accidents. The planning benchmarks for urban roads and parking infrastructure were still formed in the era when small and medium-sized cars were popularized. The expansion of vehicle sizes has taken the lead in urban supporting facilities.

The hidden costs are even more pronounced. Increased size is often accompanied by an increase in vehicle weight. A wider and longer body and a higher-capacity battery will all be converted into the vehicle's own weight. Data shows that the power consumption of a 3-ton pure electric SUV generally exceeds 20 degrees per 100 kilometers. At the same time, the heavier the vehicle, the longer the braking distance and the stronger the impact kinetic energy during a collision.

At the 2026 World Internet Conference·Wuzhen Cafe·Automobile Night Forum, NIO founder, chairman and CEO Li Bin once again mentioned the "fourth rule" in the field of road engineering - 1.2 times the weight will cause 2.07 times the damage to the road.

Vehicles blindly enlarge and gain weight, which brings a series of public costs such as energy consumption and road loss. But this does not mean that consumers’ reasonable demand for large space should be denied, but that rules are needed to balance external influences.

The rules are also answered very cleverly. On January 1, 2026, the "Energy Consumption Limits of Electric Vehicles Part 1: Passenger Cars" (GB 36980.1-2025) was officially implemented. For the first time, the new regulations deeply linked vehicle power consumption standards to the quality of the equipment, tightened overall industry power consumption requirements, and set strict power consumption thresholds for overweight models above 2,710 kilograms.

The new regulations do not restrict size across the board, but remove the "backstop protection" for blind expansion. If you want to continue to expand in size, you must rely on hard technology to absorb the pressure of energy consumption. This also points to the direction of industry development. The yardstick of a good car is never its body size, but its technical capabilities.

In fact, high-strength steel, lightweight alloys, integrated die-casting, high-energy-density batteries, and efficient cockpit layout can improve space utilization and control size and weight without blindly enlarging the car body. Therefore, lightweighting is not about reducing configurations. The "occupancy rate" and "experience" of refined design will test the internal strength of car companies.

After all, the core attribute of a car is transportation. Car companies should break away from the thinking of "bigger is better", delve into driving control, space, safety and low-carbon technologies, and tap product value within a reasonable size.

The development of domestic car companies has not completely fallen into a size competition. Avita adheres to the original design route; BYD pursues "using technological innovation to satisfy people's yearning for a better life and help cool the earth by 1°C"; Cyrus is based on the "five high" standards of high safety, high reliability, high performance, high quality and high value... None of these answers regards "big" as the core selling point.

The "big car trend" that Mercedes-Benz captured from the Chinese auto market is not the industry standard answer. As China moves from a major automobile country to a powerful automobile country, the competition has never been about whose car body is longer and wider, but about the solid technological content behind safety, intelligence, and low carbon. Only by putting aside the single perspective of "big is better" can car companies truly see the long-term way out for industrial development.