In order to put up a better fight against the BMW i3, Mercedes-Benz has decided to team up with Tesla to power the new B-Class Electric Drive.
The partnership will allow Mercedes-Benz to save billions of dollars in research and development for a technology that won't be sought after and purchased by a majority of customers. And since the B-Class Electric Drive will use the same assembly line as the regular B-Class (notice how styling is pretty similar, too), the German automaker won't have to sell a specific number of units to get a return on its investment.
The new B-Class Electric Drive will reportedly offer a range of 200 kilometres and retail for about the same price as the BMW i3 ($44,950 in Canada).
While it goes on sale in Germany later this month, customers in select U.S. states will have to wait until mid-July 2015.
The B-Class Electric Drive's Canadian availability has yet to be announced.
Source: Bloomberg