American electric car producer, Tesla Motors Inc, is set to face a challenge from the German car maker, Mercedes. Mercedes recently outlined plans to have an electric truck on the market in around 5 years or so. Last week, Tesla released plans to build electric commercial vehicles. The company also released sketches of the vehicles.
The truck, which is called the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck, will reportedly have a range of around 200 kilometers, and will weight 26 metric tons. In a statement, Mercedes’ parent company, Daimler AG said that it could be on sale by the start of the next decade.
An article recently published on Bloomberg gave details on why Mercedes, and other car manufacturers may be entering this market. It read “Truckmakers are starting to develop electric models to meet tighter emissions rules for city centers, though options are limited due to a lack of batteries with the durability to propel fully loaded vehicles for long periods of constant use. Industry tests include the 6-ton Canter e-Cell from Daimler’s Fuso brand and a model from Volkswagen AG’s Scania division that’s powered by overhead electric cables. MAN SE, another VW unit, plans to show a battery-powered truck concept in September, while U.S. startup Nikola Motor Co. is scheduled to unveil a prototype in December.”
Wolfgang Bernhard, head of Daimler trucks, also gave his perspective, saying “Until now, no one’s been making money from electric vehicles, but those who are too late with new technology lose market share, and that’s why these models are coming out now.”
Tesla Motors Inc will open its Gigafactory, which is based in Nevada, on the 31/07/2016. It will produce a huge amount of lithium-ion batteries, needed to mass-produce the new Tesla Model 3. The Model 3 was unveiled by the firm on the 31/03/2016, and it has a starting price of just $35,000.
As the NASDAQ closed on the 27/07/2016, a share in Tesla Motors Inc was down by 0.44%, trading at $228.49.
