Pricing announced for the B-Class Electric Drive (in the USA

[klaus]

Mercedes has announced the B-Class Electric Drive will be priced from $41,450 when it goes on sale in the United States this summer.

That puts it at $100 more than the BMW i3, and now that we know the EPA range rating on the i3 is 81 miles, if the B-Class would have a 3 digit range like Mercedes has been promising all along, BMW might really have some trouble on their hands!

 

[tomt]

It will get more interesting when we learn how MB is going to handle leasing and if they will play the same gimmicky game with the Federal tax credit that BMW (with the i3) and Toyota (with their PiP) did... So far, only Nissan has really got that part right.

 

[mitchev]

Maybe Mercedes won't offer leasing - it's getting fairly common for people to lease electric vehicles to avoid battery pack degradation issues, but leasing puts all the risk on the manufacturer. I guess that's no different than offering a warranty on the battery pack - it's still the manufacturer putting up the risk. Hmmm.

 

[tomt]

Considering that Mercedes is a very leasing-centric company it would be very surprising if they did not do the same with the B... Plus, with the exception of Tesla, every EV manufacturer has offered manufacturer backed leasing for a variety of reasons and I don't see MB bucking this.

Maybe Mercedes won't offer leasing - it's getting fairly common for people to lease electric vehicles to avoid battery pack degradation issues, but leasing puts all the risk on the manufacturer. I guess that's no different than offering a warranty on the battery pack - it's still the manufacturer putting up the risk. Hmmm.