Mercedes-Benz Creating All-Electric Sub-Brand

By Tony Markovich - August 15, 2016

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Better late than never, right? With Tesla leading the electric wave, BMW innovating in its own way, and companies like Chevrolet and Nissan sprinting toward a new automotive future, it sounds like Mercedes-Benz is really gearing up to join the race. According to Bloomberg, who spoke to “two people familiar with the [Mercedes-Benz] plan,” M-B will announce soon that it will be launching its own all-electric sub-brand, a la BMW i.

Only a couple weeks removed from news that M-B is aiming to sell an electric pickup truck within five years, the new report outlines that the idea is to have two sport SUVs and two sedans in the individual brand. Bloomberg didn’t get any details about a potential name, but the Paris Motor Show in September might be the first place that M-B shows off the first new car of the bunch.

Though some might see this move as being “late to the party,” it could be taken another way. You know how people always say never to buy the first model year of a brand new car? That’s smart advice, because there are usually various issues and unforeseen obstacles that plague new things. Well, maybe M-B was just waiting to see if electric cars were really going to be legit. And now that they are, M-B can take all the problems other companies have had into consideration, and take a much more efficient and productive route to building their own cars.

“When Tesla started coming up many years ago we decided at the time, and I believe correctly, that the technology wasn’t quite ready,” Wolfgang Bernhard, Daimler’s trucks chief, told Bloomberg.“Now we believe the time has come to earn money in e-mobility over the next five to 10 years.”

Where there is potential for money, most companies will come. Will we see any design cues from any of the recent Mercedes-Benz concepts below, like the IAA, the Tokyo Vision, the G-Code, or the F 015. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.