Re:Tesla envy grips Germany’s giants
by robterrell on Monday September 05, 2016 @11:09AM
(#12430703)
Neither of those cars get 150 miles of range. They're both squarely in the under-100 miles category. The BMW only reaches 150 if you get the "range extender," i.e. a motorcycle engine in the trunk that charges the battery. The MB has a "extended charge" mode where you get get a little over a 100 miles, at the expense of using some of the battery overprovisioning.
Also, humorously, that Mercedes B-Class you linked to is, under the body, a Tesla frame and propulsion system. They're buying from Tesla because they don't have their own technology yet. Tesla only sells them 30-something kilowatt battery packs, though.
> They're buying from Tesla because they don't have their own technology yet. Tesla only sells them 30-something kilowatt battery packs, though.
No, they’re buying from Tesla because they invested heavily in Tesla in return for being able to use that IP later on.
http://www.bmwusa.com/bmw/bmwi
The range is a little less than what Tesla offers (150 miles), but here in Berlin I see quite a few of them on the road already. Mercedes has a similar model btw:
http://www.mercedes-benz.de/content/germany/mpc/mpc_germany_...
They probably don't get hyped as much as Tesla, but they seem pretty real to me nevertheless.