Autocar reports that Daimler and BYD will be teaming up to create a low cost plug-in electric car.
The car is planned for 2014. It will receive its own unique brand name and, according to a high ranking Daimler executive, the price “will change the way people perceive electric cars”. Also, it will be designed for the Chinese market, with no plans for export mentioned (Although that doesn’t mean there aren’t any, we just don’t know of any).
Each side’s responsibilities haven’t yet been sorted out, but it is likely that it will be designed in Mercedes-Benz’s new Shanghai based styling studio, while engineering will be split between the two companies. BYD will take care of production in their Shenzhen, China manufacturing site.
Daimler intends to use lessons from the development of this car to lower the cost of other electric cars it is developing, which include plug-in versions of the next-generation Smart Fortwo and ForFour, as well as the third-gen Mercedes-Benz A-Class and second-gen B-Class.