Mercedes-Benz Will Unveil Its First 310-mile Electric Car During Paris Motor Show in October; GAC and LeEco Form Joint Venture; 11,539 CHAdeMO DC Quick Chargers Have been Installed; Tesla Favored to Grow to $700 Billion By Investor
Mercedes-Benz Will Unveil Its First 310-mile Electric Car During Paris Motor Show in October
According to Reuters, Mercedes-Benz Chief Development Officer Thomas Weber disclosed that a prototype electric car with range of 500 km (or 310 miles) would be displayed in Paris in October this year, during a journalists event in Stuttgart.
Mr. Weber this time did not say a specific launch date. A Car Magazine article in December 2015 wrote the company would launch a long-range electric sedan in 2018, with the size between C-class and E-class. The sedan will be followed by two crossovers and one limo.
GAC and LeEco Form Joint Venture
According to Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd. (GAC) website, GAC, LeEco and Urtrust Insurance formed a joint venture (called Dasheng) in Guangzhou China, on June 8th.
GAC is one of the top carmakers in China (which is also true for plug-in hybrids). LeEco is a Chinese technology company often viewed as the Chinese Netflix. LeEco is the backer of Faraday Future.
Dasheng is a car O2O company. In the JV, GAC, LeEco and Urturst own 45%, 40% and 15% respectively.
11,539 CHAdeMO DC Quick Chargers Have been Installed
CHAdeMO updated the number on June 6th. There are 6,469 chargers in Japan, 3,178 in Europe, 1,784 in the US and 108 in the rest of the world. Compared to the numbers in April, there is no change on the number for Japan, but 248 chargers have been added outside Japan.
CHAdeMO also announced the even faster 150kW version on June 1st. First installations are expected next year. 350kW is under study as well. Current CHAdeMO Quick chargers are rated at 50kW.
Tesla Favored to Grow to $700 Billion By Investor
According to Bloomberg, Ron Baron, whose investment company owns Tesla stock worth about 1% of the market value, implied that the EV maker would be as large as $722 billion in 10-20 years. The market responded by a 6.2% increase in share price on Tuesday.
Tesla’s market cap currently is around $34 billion. Baron said Tesla could become a global top company and it would stay ahead of electric car competition.
Not everyone is as optimistic. A month ago, Mike Jackson, AutoNation Chairman and CEO, called Tesla’s 500 thousand vehicles ramp-up plan “mission impossible”.