Mercedes' Byd for China

By Michael Taylor

March 2010

Mercedes-Benz is joining fledgling Chinese carmaker, BYD, to create an all-new car brand for the Chinese market, a source has confirmed.

While the name is not yet fixed, the project has been signed off by both Daimler and BYD to give birth to an all-electric car company to design and build cars in China.

Byd has made no secret of its admiration of premium German cars and car makers - with a logo some say apes BMW's and a convertible model, pictured here at the Shanghai Motor Show in 2009, clearly inspired by the models Mercedes produced in the late 1990s.

“Our new car will be developed and built and designed in China,” our Daimler source said.

“We have a design team in Beijing already and they’re working on options for it now.”

The two companies are already building a centre of design in China and our source insists early design sketches for the new car will be ready within two months.

tThe first production cars are around three years away, Benz admits it has gone to BYD for its advanced cost-effective electric technology and to help it learn how to build low-cost cars.

While the brand - Daimler’s first new brand launch since the ill-fated Maybach - will only be sold in China, the battery technology being developed for the new brand will also find homes in smarts and Renaults around the world.

While BYD is known for its Lithium-Ion battery technology, Benz has moved into Li-Tech batteries and the two are attempting to combine their resources.

 “We will use BYD battery cells for our Chinese car and develop them a little further for low-end cars in Europe,” our source said.
Benz insiders have admitted they need the know-how to build cheap small cars and, especially, electric cars, and China has it.

 “If we asked our engineers to design a car with that level of safety, they would just not do it.

“Our cars are designed for at least 300,000km and keeping a car that long is not the culture in China so maybe it doesn’t have to meet all of the internal standards,” he admitted.

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