Rumor: Mercedes to leave F1 by 2030, possibly even 2025.

With today’s announcement by Mercedes-Benz that it plans to have a 100% electric passenger car lineup by 2030, comes rumors that it will leave F1 at that time because F1 cannot be 100% electric, only Formula E can be. A silent electric power unit does not fit F1’s image and brand and Mercedes already races in Formula E.

Outlining its strategy for an electric future, the German luxury carmaker said on Thursday it would, with partners, build eight battery plants as it ramps up EV production, and that from 2025 all new vehicle platforms would only make electric cars.

“We really want to go for it … and be dominantly, if not all electric, by the end of the decade,” Chief Executive Ola Källenius told Reuters, adding that spending on traditional combustion-engine technology would be “close to zero” by 2025……which is when all funding for F1 could stop.

However, Daimler stopped short of giving a hard deadline for ending sales of fossil-fuel cars.