Mercedes-Benz has waited a long time to enter the electric car business, but it will early next year with 2014 Mercedes-Benz B-Class. It’s all-electric hatchback with a 24-kilowatt-hour lithium ion battery pack offering a driving range of up to 124 miles on a single charge.
Mercedes reports the car will have an electric motor supplying 134-horsepower and 228 pound-feet of torque. The new car can reach a top speed of 93 miles per hour and accelerate from 0-60 mph in less than 10 seconds.
Mercedes-Benz unveiled B-Class electric vehicle at the 2013 New York Auto Show in March. The new B-Class will feature active parking assist and a radar-based collision prevention system.
The B-Class Electric Drive will be the smallest Mercedes-Benz available in the United States, where the carmaker has traditionally sold larger luxury sedans and SUVs.
In Europe, Mercedes has sold both the quite compact A-Class and B-Class platform—on which the B-Class Electric Drive is built—for the better part of a decade. There is no indication, beyond the all-electric B-Class, that those cars are headed to the U.S.
The B-Class Electric Drive will also be the first Mercedes-branded product to come out of Daimler-Benz’s collaboration with Tesla Motors, which began in 2009 with a much-needed $50 million investment on the part of Daimler.
Tesla will supply Mercedes-Benz with the lithium ion battery packs and electric motors for the B-Class, which will be integrated into a Mercedes-designed powertrain. Pricing for the new Mercedes-Benz has not been announced.
Article Last Updated: April 22, 2014.
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