Weeks before Tesla was supposed to shock the world by revealing their battery-powered semi-truck, Mercedes has once again one-upped the Silicon Valley darling by beating them to the punch. As Bloomberg points out, earlier Daimler revealed their E-Fuso Vision One prototype, an electric semi-truck that can carry 11 tons of cargo some 220 miles before having to recharge.
Daimler AG is jumping the gun on Tesla Inc. by showing off a battery-powered heavy-duty truck weeks before the California electric-car maker’s own planned unveiling, in a sign of the growing rivalry between the companies.
The E-Fuso Vision One prototype can carry 11 tons of cargo as far as 350 kilometers (220 miles) before recharging, the world’s largest maker of commercial vehicles said Wednesday in a statement. The truck, which would be geared to shorter intra-city trips, could go on sale within four years in Europe, Japan and the U.S.
The truck is part of plans by Daimler’s Fuso brand to add electric and hybrid options across its range of trucks and buses. The announcement steals a march on Tesla, which plans to show off a concept truck on Nov. 16. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk engaged in a Twitter tussle with Daimler, a former Tesla shareholder, about electric-vehicle spending last month. Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz is also ramping up a line of battery-powered luxury cars to challenge Tesla models.
Of course, this comes as Elon was recently forced to delay Tesla’s much anticipated reveal celebration due to his Model 3 “production hell.”
Tesla Semi unveil now Nov 16. Diverting resources to fix Model 3 bottlenecks & increase battery production for Puerto Rico & other affected areas.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 6, 2017
As we recently pointed out (see: Porsche And Mercedes Plot Musk Offensive With “Anything Tesla Can Do, We Can Do Better” Strategy), Tesla, once the only real electric car game in town, is suddenly facing an onslaught of competition from major auto OEMs who have already figured out how to weld steel on an assembly line.
