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As Tesla continues to push the world’s manufacturers to react quickly to the EV craze, it’s no surprise to see daily announcements of said manufacturers—luxury or otherwise—to come to the fore with EVs of their own. First, it was Porsche launching the Mission E, and now it’s Mercedes-Benz’s turn to reveal their EV strategy.
As we all know, Mercedes doesn’t do things half-way. So, the new platform they just revealed will be underpinning not one single model, but four different imaginations of the same platform. For now, it’s looking lie we’re going to be seeing to sedans and two SUV/Crossovers/MPVs, with the first sedan coming in 2018. The line-up will serve as a shot over the bow of the Tesla Model S, Model 3 and Model X.
The German manufacturer has earmarked $2 billion—that’s “billion”, with a “B”—for development of the new platform, dubbed, somewhat conservatively (this is Mercedes, after all) “Electric Vehicle Architecture (EVA)”. Late last year, Mercedes hinted that this new division will be called “Ecoluxe.”
Preliminary reports have Mercedes stuffing 800 pounds of batteries into the floor, which will be powering all four wheels. Apparently, engineers have varied the power to each axle in order to maximize returns. Chances are, the cars will be biased for rear drive.
We’re still in strict speculation territory with regard to the power produced by the cars, as well as price. Mercedes is being serious, though, evidenced by several provocative concepts displayed at the Frankfurt and Tokyo auto shows last year. Price-wise, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Tesla-like numbers.
