Added: 08 August 2016

Mercedes-Benz plan for a new electric sub-brand

With electric driving popularity continuing to rise, Mercedes-Benz are purportedly planning an EV branch-off. The electric/hybrid range will features eco SUVs and sports cars. Sources suggest 4 new models will be unveiled at the Paris Motor Show this September, with the line-up said to be set to be available before the end of the decade. With Mercedes-Benz representatives yet to officially announce the plans, at this stage information on the new EV brand is partially speculative. However, we do know Mercedes-Benz and parent company Daimler AG have been planning the world’s first heavy-duty all-electric delivery truck. Daimler’s Fuso Canter E-Cell is a lightweight electric delivery truck which has been being tested by customers since 2014 – but now Mercedes have teamed up to introduce a heavier, medium-weight vehicle capable of carrying up to 26 tons. Coined the Urban eTruck, the new electric van runs on three-axles and has a range of up to 200km, targeted towards users looking predominantly for a local distribution vehicle. And all evidence suggests that electric trucks will not be the limit of Mercedes Benz electric developments.

“We intend to establish electric driving as systematically as autonomous and connected driving,” Wolfgang Bernhard, Daimler’s trucks chief, said in an interview last week at the urban e-truck’s unveiling. “When Tesla started coming up many years ago we decided at the time, and I believe correctly, that the technology wasn’t quite ready,” “Now we believe the time has come to earn money in e-mobility over the next five to 10 years.”