

Mercedes Bringing Tesla-Powered EV to U.S. Next Year - 3am
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/03/mercedes-b-class-electric/

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encoderer
I bought a Mercedes a couple weeks ago from a dealership on the peninsula. The
sales manager I was talking to told me that Tesla has picked up "several" cars
from them in the last couple years to retro-fit to electric.

If I remember the details correctly, he said they'd gotten, I think, 2 CLS's,
and recently they picked up an S but had fit issues with it.

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shawnbaden
EV needs to 1) deliver the same features, performance, and convenience as
current vehicles at a comparable price or 2) deliver considerable more than
current vehicles to just an increased price.

It's good to see a luxury car maker introduce an EV and the Mercedes-Benz name
will certainly lend itself to sales but the B-class is a weak offering for the
U.S. market. Luxury hatches have never been a good seller here and any measure
of success has been with performance-related models, which this isn't. I
suspect the thinking at Mercedes-Benz was the U.S. has no frame of reference
in the B-Class so introducing an EV model is safe bet. I don't see this
selling well because it will likely be down on luxury relative to other MB
cars (see previous C230 hatchback failure) and also down on performance
(again, compared to other MB cars). Vague numbers like zero to 60 MPH in
"considerably less than 10 seconds" is never a good sign.

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3am
Is "considerably less than 10 seconds" that bad of a sign? I took that to mean
in the neighborhood of 7 seconds, which is just fine for most usage. Probably
depends on factors like temperature and charge level, which is a new problem
for car makers trying to describe the performance of a vehicle.

I think you're underestimating the utility some people attach to owning a pure
electric vehicle (and without research, I would guess wealthier than average
people). So they don't have to reach parity with or exceed ICE powered
vehicles to succeed.

[EDIT] - I think this doesn't see the forest for the trees. Regardless of the
model B's quality, Tesla's battery pack and powertrain are becoming a platform
for other car makers - definitely a positive for the company's development.

[EDIT2] - Noting your interest in cars, I freely concede that I don't see this
as a car lovers' car. But that doesn't stop there from being plenty of
minivans on the road.

~~~
zalew
> Is "considerably less than 10 seconds" that bad of a sign? I took that to
> mean in the neighborhood of 7 seconds

People put a lot of money in performance tuning to get rid of 0.5s in the
lower scale, but even in the slower numbers improving by 1s often takes engine
swapping, super-charging and/or other sorts of mods. Saying 'considerably less
than 10s' is like saying 'your salary will be considerably more than 1k' which
could be 1.2k as well as 4k, but when you hear that you know it's about the
former.

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arrrg
No one who cares that (crazy) much about cars will ever buy a Mercedes B
Class. I’m sorry, but what you are talking about here couldn’t be any less
relevant for the prospective target group of this car.

Who the fuck even cares about 0-60 times?! Nobody (for all reasonable
definitions of nobody in this context), that’s who.

With its range and charging requirements this car won’t even leave the city
all that often.

I don’t know, maybe for Americans the concept of buying a Mercedes as a boring
family car is alien, but that’s what the B Class is. It’s not a luxury or
performance car.

~~~
zalew
I'm not American and feel welcome to check out my other comment in this
thread.

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sbierwagen

      Mercedes is just as vague with battery capacity and charge 
      times, claiming the B-Class can add an additional 60 miles 
      of range in less than two hours when plugged into a 
      240-volt outlet.
    

"A 240-volt outlet" only provides half the information you need-- like
specifying the maximum PSI of an air compressor without saying what its flow
rate is. A 15 amp 240 volt outlet can only provide half as many watts as a 30
amp one.

The biggest Tesla 240-volt charger draws 100 amps = 24KW.

The Superchargers run at 440 volts and ~400 amps = 90KW.

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ams6110
The "smallest" 240V American household circuit would be 30A (e.g. for a
clothes dryer). Electric range is 50A. I'm not aware of any common demand for
240V at only 15A.

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sbierwagen
It was an example, bro.

There actually is a standard NEMA connector for 240V 15A loads-- NEMA 6-15.
It's less than common, as you'd expect.

(Running a 240V 15A circuit would be easy, all cable is rated to 600V anyway,
it'd just be regular 14/2 romex. I've never actually _done_ that, but it's
possible. (Clothes dryers and ovens always use 6/3 or whatever, which will let
you run 120V components off the hot-neutral circuit. 240V 14/2 would be hot-
hot.))

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stcredzero
I wonder if Tesla is going to do anything with the "Falcon Wing Doors" on
their upcoming mass-market version? The Falcon Wing could be modified to
decrease the size of the passenger door opening, resulting in a stronger and
lighter body by reducing the degree to which the door openings compromise the
structure of the car body. If they ensure that the floor of the car is fairly
low, then they can require a passenger to step over a low wall to get into the
car. 12 inches (30 cm) wouldn't be too onerous, but would do wonders for the
structural integrity of the vehicle. The rear hatch could be kept low to the
ground to enable easy loading of cargo. Passengers in folding rear-facing rear
seats could use the rear hatch as an exit.

Just speculating out loud. Tesla's real car is probably not going to look
anything like this.

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stephengillie
The wired article linked me to Mercedes' _other_ EV, whose Porsche-powered
multi-motor system gives it incredible traction control, and helps bring the
car's price tag to more than $500,000.

[http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/03/mercedes-benz-sls-
elect...](http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/03/mercedes-benz-sls-
electric/all/)

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austenallred
An interesting step, considering it seemed like Tesla was continuously working
it's way down in price range. Of course, prices haven't been listed for these
Mercedes/Tesla EVs, but my guess would be they'd cost more than the roadster.

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tikhonj
Mercedes is also going to produce the SLS AMG Electric Drive. It's a bit
pricier but also far more exciting than the B-class.

It's nice to see increasing numbers of electric options. Certainly a promising
sign for the technology.

