Mercedes Plans Fleet of EVs to Compete With Tesla, Others

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole

While none of them will look anything like this, Car reports that Mercedes-Benz has a pretty firm plan in place to compete against EV makers and German rivals before the end of the decade.

The magazine reports that Mercedes plans to have a sedan on sale by 2018, followed shortly by a crossover to compete directly against Tesla before the end of the decade. Car also reported that Mercedes will add another crossover and an electric S-Class shortly thereafter.

The first car will reportedly be sized between its C- and E-Class, but it’s price tag sure won’t be.

According to Car, the electrified MB sedan could start around $100,000, with its crossover and luxury models soaring well north of that by the end of the decade.

That would be in line with other automakers such as Porsche and Audi, who have announced they’ll both offer electric sedans and crossovers before the end of the decade.

Considering we see more white tigers in the wild than Mercedes’ other, other electric vehicle — its B-Class — it stands to reason that the automaker has more of a future in luxury EVs than it does in “everyday” electric cars.

But considering Tesla’s viability seems to be hinging on whether it can produce an affordable electric car by the end of this year, it seems odd that Mercedes would be choosing to start at the top — and then go higher.

Aaron Cole
Aaron Cole

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  • Nickoo Nickoo on Jan 03, 2016

    Without supercharging networks. No ev is going to ever be tesla. Supercharging is teslas real innovation. If the giga factory is succesful, they will all be buying from tesla as well.

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    • Mcs Mcs on Jan 04, 2016

      @derekson Dealership charging doesn't work. Ron Bouchard Nissan in Lancaster MA decided to restrict their level 3 charger to individuals that have bought cars at their dealership. Kelly Nissan in Woburn MA likes to park used cars for sale in their charging spots. Commonwealth Nissan in Lawrence MA charges $6 for a level 3 charge. Some dealers restrict charging to dealership hours. The problem is that you pretty much never need a local dealer to charge at. It's almost always someplace unfamiliar. Having a network along major highways that's open 24 hrs a day is the ideal situation. No mystery as to what you might be facing. For me, 200+ mile range is going to pretty much eliminate any need for public charging. My longest trip, Boston to Vermont, can be easily made with the next generation of EV. But, I would like to have a viable network available if I wanted to go further. Any car depending on a dealership charging network will be ruled out - regardless of how pretty its interior is.

  • Inside Looking Out Inside Looking Out on Jan 03, 2016

    Yeah, we desperately need German engineered electric cars. It will certainly solve all their quality and reliability problems. I have high confidence that they will come up with simple, elegant and effective engineering solutions which will put Tesla into shame.

  • Lorenzo Lorenzo on Jan 03, 2016

    BAH! We'll have to go back to burning coal to produce the electricity to charge all those EVs. Wind and solar can't even keep up with current usage.

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    • Sportyaccordy Sportyaccordy on Jan 04, 2016

      @28-Cars-Later Issue with solar is it doesn't generate all the time. It is very finicky and supplementary. But nuclear can handle base load. There are alternative purchasing plans that get away from simple payback. For example you can do a PPA where they install equipment on your property and you buy power from them. In states with high utility costs you can often buy power from those little plants at lower rates than regular distributed power. Only downside to that is you have to commit for a long time. There are also little solar farms that sell to regions with enough commitment. Many ways to skin the cat. But solar can't replace generation until they deal with the storage issue. And there is the efficency thing and just the simple amount of available energy from the sun, which I think is about 14W/sqft. That drops down to ~3W/sqft from the most efficient panels. Lot of moving pieces and open ends

  • Stingray65 Stingray65 on Jan 04, 2016

    Let me see if I understand the comments. Pro-Tesla: crappy interiors, but they have the supercharging network that the Germans don't have. Pro-German: stronger brands, nicer interiors, but no charging networks. What no one has mentioned 1) not a single electric car currently being produced is profitable, even though they are heavily subsidized, and I don't think the profit problem is due to brand or interior related issues. 2) The supercharging networks are also not profitable, even though they are heavily subsidized, and it is unclear to me why anyone will want to build thousands more without a clear path to profitability.

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