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Except the don't as they recently pulled their only electric vehicle (B-Class) and haven't exactly shown any interest in pursuing this technology in cars. Thei

Except the don't as they recently pulled their only electric vehicle (B-Class) and haven't exactly shown any interest in pursuing this technology in cars. Their narrative is that nobody showed any interest when the thruth is that they had only lackluster PR and of course it wasn't a great value compared to a Tesla for instance. The state of affairs when it comes to electric cars in car country Germany is a very sad one. Everybody keeps reiterating how we're not ready yet (not enough stations, battery production and demand, etc.) when Scandinavia is doing just fine. And their car industry is probably just a fraction of ours.

Neil44 9y ago
The electric B class was a cooperation with Tesla wasn't it? As Tesla becomes a more serious competitor I can see why they'd want to curtail that to focus on their own technology. People lap up this narrative about Tesla beating all the traditional companies but the bottom line is they're tiny and loosing money, while the others are making it.
_pmf_ 9y ago
> Except the don't as they recently pulled their only electric vehicle (B-Class) and haven't exactly shown any interest in pursuing this technology in cars. The e-Smart is quite successful as a car sharing platform. But yes, there are forces inside Daimler that actively work against the E-mobility efforts of other parts of the company. > The state of affairs when it comes to electric cars in car country Germany is a very sad one. Yes; for some strange reason[0], no money goes to advancing generic charging infrastructure, but instead to research projects benefiting individual OEMs. [0] OK, it's plain corruption
mxschumacher 9y ago
Daimler (the Mercedes parent) is quite active in the space of hybrids, plug-in hybrids, fuel cells and fully electric cars: Here are three electric models that company currently produces: - Denza ( in cooperation with BYD): http://www.denza.com/?s=eng&r=single/overall http://www.denza.com/?s=eng&r=single/overall - smart: https://www.smart.com/en/en/index/smart-fortwo-electric-drive-453.html https://www.smart.com/en/en/index/smart-fortwo-electric-driv... - fuso eCanter: https://www.ecanter.com/en.html https://www.ecanter.com/en.html electric bus coming in 2018: https://cleantechnica.com/2017/05/19/mercedes-benz-confirms-electric-citaro-bus-coming-next-year/ https://cleantechnica.com/2017/05/19/mercedes-benz-confirms-... A 26-ton electric truck is in the making: https://www.daimler.com/products/trucks/mercedes-benz/mercedes-benz-electric-truck.html https://www.daimler.com/products/trucks/mercedes-benz/merced... Together with Ford and the German automakers, Daimler is building an electric charging network: https://www.daimler.com/innovation/efficiency/ultra-fast-charging-of-electric-vehicles.html https://www.daimler.com/innovation/efficiency/ultra-fast-cha... , they are also the lead investor in ChargePoint
lucaspiller 9y ago
At the moment in Europe it seems like hybrids are a much better choice than a fully electric car. Even in Germany rapid charging stations (i.e. 80% charge in 30 minutes) are few and far between, so if you plan on going on a road trip it's not going to be a very good experience. As a city car it would be viable, but electric cars are very expensive for comparable non-electric models (e.g. the VW Up is €9850 and the e-Up is €26900). Plus depending on how the electricity is generated it may not even be better for the environment, e.g. in the U.K. an electric car uses the equivalent of 5.5l/100km petrol - which is the same or worse than a hybrid. As more clean energy is produced it will improve, but it will take a while to get to that point.

Neil44 9y ago

The electric B class was a cooperation with Tesla wasn't it? As Tesla becomes a more serious competitor I can see why they'd want to curtail that to focus on their own technology. People lap up this narrative about Tesla beating all the traditional companies but the bottom line is they're tiny and loosing money, while the others are making it.

_pmf_ 9y ago

> Except the don't as they recently pulled their only electric vehicle (B-Class) and haven't exactly shown any interest in pursuing this technology in cars. The e-Smart is quite successful as a car sharing platform. But yes, there are forces inside Daimler that actively work against the E-mobility efforts of other parts of the company. > The state of affairs when it comes to electric cars in car country Germany is a very sad one. Yes; for some strange reason[0], no money goes to advancing generic charging infrastructure, but instead to research projects benefiting individual OEMs. [0] OK, it's plain corruption

mxschumacher 9y ago

Daimler (the Mercedes parent) is quite active in the space of hybrids, plug-in hybrids, fuel cells and fully electric cars: Here are three electric models that company currently produces: - Denza ( in cooperation with BYD): http://www.denza.com/?s=eng&r=single/overall http://www.denza.com/?s=eng&r=single/overall - smart: https://www.smart.com/en/en/index/smart-fortwo-electric-drive-453.html https://www.smart.com/en/en/index/smart-fortwo-electric-driv... - fuso eCanter: https://www.ecanter.com/en.html https://www.ecanter.com/en.html electric bus coming in 2018: https://cleantechnica.com/2017/05/19/mercedes-benz-confirms-electric-citaro-bus-coming-next-year/ https://cleantechnica.com/2017/05/19/mercedes-benz-confirms-... A 26-ton electric truck is in the making: https://www.daimler.com/products/trucks/mercedes-benz/mercedes-benz-electric-truck.html https://www.daimler.com/products/trucks/mercedes-benz/merced... Together with Ford and the German automakers, Daimler is building an electric charging network: https://www.daimler.com/innovation/efficiency/ultra-fast-charging-of-electric-vehicles.html https://www.daimler.com/innovation/efficiency/ultra-fast-cha... , they are also the lead investor in ChargePoint

lucaspiller 9y ago

At the moment in Europe it seems like hybrids are a much better choice than a fully electric car. Even in Germany rapid charging stations (i.e. 80% charge in 30 minutes) are few and far between, so if you plan on going on a road trip it's not going to be a very good experience. As a city car it would be viable, but electric cars are very expensive for comparable non-electric models (e.g. the VW Up is €9850 and the e-Up is €26900). Plus depending on how the electricity is generated it may not even be better for the environment, e.g. in the U.K. an electric car uses the equivalent of 5.5l/100km petrol - which is the same or worse than a hybrid. As more clean energy is produced it will improve, but it will take a while to get to that point.