ED i
John Mahoney1 Aug 2017
NEWS

Mercedes killing off its only pure-electric car

Slow-selling B-Class Electric Drive culled to make way for German car-maker's EQ sub-brand

Mercedes-Benz has confirmed it will kill off its B-Class Electric Drive in the next couple of months to help it focus on launching its 'EQ' branded family of pure-electric vehicles.

Confirming the B-Class Electric Drive would be phased out in the third quarter of 2017, a Mercedes-Benz US spokesman told Automotive News that there were no immediate plans to introduce a replacement for the zero-tailpipe emissions mini people-mover.

Part of the reason the B-Class is being put out to pasture is the German production line it's built on is being converted and retooled for the next-generation A- and B-Class.

With no plans to replace it, buyers who want a pure-electric Mercedes will have to wait until 2019 when a battery-powered rival to the Tesla Model X SUV arrives. From then on, Benz will rush 10 new electric cars to market by 2022 as part of a $11 billion investment in its new EQ brands.

Banking heavily on the success of pure-electric vehicles, Mercedes-Benz estimates that battery-powered vehicles will account for 25 per cent of all global sales by 2025.

Despite looking a little staid, in its own way the B-Class Electric Drive was a true pioneer for the brand.

To keep development costs low, the pure-electric hatch is based on the standard production car, shunning BMW's approach of creating a bespoke pure-electric architecture.

Introduced back in late 2013, the pure-electric B-Class sourced both its 100kW/310Nm electric motor and a 36kWh lithium-ion battery from Tesla because, back then, Benz owned a four per cent stake in the US car-maker.

This provided the little B-Class with a 200km range. It was reasonably brisk too, taking 7.9 seconds to reach 100km/h, although top speed was limited to just 150km/h.

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