Mercedes-Benz is all set to commence shipping of its first mass produced pure electric vehicle B-Class electric drive in the U.S. by the end of this month.
With this launch, Mercedes will now compete with models such as the Nissan Leaf and the popular Tesla Model S in the fast growing U.S. plug-in electric vehicle market.
This also places the Mercedes B-Class ED in direct competition with its chief rival BMW’s i3 pure-play electric car.
PEVs presently constitute an extremely small portion of the overall U.S. automotive industry. with growing consumer attention towards electrically-powered vehicles and higher investments in this sector to improve infrastructure, the PEV segment could become a crucial growth driver for automakers going forward.
Mercedes-Benz, in particular, will aim for significant volume-growth in the U.S. in the long term, in order to meet its goal of becoming the largest luxury automaker by the end of the decade. The German carmaker lost the global luxury sales crown to BMW in 2005, and now ranks third behind both its compatriots BMW and Volkswagen AG‘s Audi in terms of global volumes.
The U.S. remains the largest market for Mercedes-Benz, accounting for over one-fifths of all unit sales for the brand last year. Mercedes fended-off growing competition from BMW to hold the lead in the U.S. luxury auto market last year, however, the company has since posted lower volumes compared to the latter in the first five months of the year in the country.
With both BMW i3 and Mercedes B-Class ED launching almost side-by-side, the competition in the U.S. PEV market is set to heat up.