Tesla's crown under threat

Trailblazing Tesla’s time as the pre-eminent player in the emerging electric vehicle market is about to end.

That’s the view of Wilko Stark, the strategy chief of Mercedes-Benz and its parent Daimler, who says Tesla will become just one of many competitors vying for green dollars as other manufacturers launch their EV assaults.

Stark was speaking to motoring.com.au at a future drivetrains briefing in Stuttgart last week, where first details of Benz’s upcoming EV assault were revealed.

“Definitely for the time being yes,” Stark replied when asked if internet billionaire Elon Musk’s automotive start-up had taken attention from the long-established auto industry members with the roll-out of the high-performance Model S, the Model X SUV and the forthcoming Model 3 compact car.

“But regarding the (emissions) legislation we have in the USA, Europe and also in China, all the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) have to go into electric cars to meet the CO2 regulations. It is imperative, it is a must.

“Therefore we are also pushing this technology, so at the end Tesla will be an electric car manufacturer among all the other manufacturers.

“For the time being Tesla has a unique selling proposition and in a few years from now all the competitors will have electric cars.

“So it will be Tesla versus 10 or 15 other competitors. It’s as simple as that.”

At the briefing Benz showed off the Electric Vehicle Architecture it will use to underpin a close-to-production concept that will break cover at the Paris motor show in October.

Benz also confirmed its first production EV, expected to be a four-door Grand Tourer that comes to market in 2018, will have a 500km range that outdoes the Model S.

But Stark insisted that outcome was not driven by a motivation solely to trump Tesla, but for Benz to beat all other emerging contenders.

“For us to come with a new electric vehicle with a new electric vehicle platform and it is a new car, but it is a Mercedes,” Stark said. “And Mercedes means it has to be the best car as simple as that. Even better than the Tesla. For sure.

“And this also applies to range.”

Benz’s first performance EV will be quickly be followed on to the market by what is expected to be a rapidly expanding family of electric vehicles as battery development produces longer range and cheaper costs and makes front, rear and all-wheel derivatives possible.

Stark had a couple of digs at Tesla in his opening address to the briefing, pointing out the Daimler-owned smart electric car is the most successful EV from a German manufacturer and “way ahead of the American electric vehicle competition”.

But Benz parent Daimler was a significant investor in Tesla and the only current Mercedes-Benz pure EV passenger car (as opposed to hybrid), the B 250e, uses a Tesla drivetrain.

But as part of its grand EV expansion Benz has brought its development and manufacturing essentially in-house. Subsidiary Accumotive manufactures its lithium-ion battery packs and the EVA platform combines new elements such as electric motors with carry-over parts from Benz’s MRA (rear/all-wheel drive) architecture.

“We had a co-operation regarding the B-Class, but I think what is very, very important is that we build up all the competencies for our own because this is the future,” Stark said.

“This is a key technology and we cannot rely on any suppliers or even competitors. Therefore, we do our own platform; we build up not from scratch but with all the technology we already have and define a completely dedicated electric vehicle platform.”

But going it alone doesn’t stretch to EV charging infrastructure and the development of universal standards for such things as charging plugs, Stark said.

Tesla has gone the other way, independently setting up its own charging network, which includes stations along the Hume Highway in Australia.

“We strongly believe we have to team up with other OEMs for this infrastructure because it doesn’t make any sense if everybody builds up these dedicated systems.

“So they need -- as we have these fuel stations today -- to be for everybody. It’s much easier than if everybody would build up their own system.”