Buried inside an exciting new electric car unveiled on Wednesday, the Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive, is an electric drive train designed and built by Tesla Motors. The B-Class sedan is one of several Daimler vehicles where Tesla Motors did drive train development and component manufacturing for Daimler.
The Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive is a Mercedes, meaning that it has all the design elements and passenger cabin quality you'd expect from a Mercedes-Benz luxury car. It is designed from the conventionally powered B-Class sedan, and even has driver assist features such as radar-based collision warning system COLLISION PREVENTION ASSIST with adaptive Brake Assist, Blind Spot Assist, Lane Keeping Assist and Active Parking Assist.
The drive train is rated for over 100 kilowatts (133 horsepower) and over 310 Nm of torque. Range is estimated at 115 miles (US City) but this is not an official EPA range certification. Charging time is rated to provide 60 miles of range in under 2 hours with a 240 volt 40 amp connection. Most of the J1772 public charging stations are deployed to support a 30 amp charge rate, making the charging rate closer to 50 miles per 2 hours of charging at a typical charging station.
What's intriguing is the role of Tesla Motors in developing this and other electric cars from Daimler.
Tesla has, since 2009, provided development services, full electric powertrain systems, and electric drive drive train components to Daimler for that company's Smart fortwo, A-Class and B-Class electric drive vehicles. From May 2009 to December 2012 Tesla provided about 2,700 battery packs and charging systems for Daimler's Smart fortwo and A-Class electric vehicles.
Towards the end of 2011, Daimler began work with Tesla Motors on the B-Class Electric Drive car. In February 2012, Daimler signed a formal purchase agreement for drive train design and manufacturing for that car. During 2012, Tesla completed various milestones and delivered prototype parts and systems to Daimler. That work netted Tesla over $15 million in services revenue.
Now that Daimler has formally announced the B-Class Electric Drive, it means Tesla Motors will be seeing more business in manufacturing the drive train for this car. We'll be finding out when Tesla Motors releases financial results for Q1 2013.
Source: Tesla's technology inside the Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive
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