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Daimler has taken a 10 per cent stake in American electric car firm Tesla as it prepares for production of the electric Smart, which uses batteries and charging systems developed by Tesla.

The move will provide Daimler with access to Tesla’s experience in bringing the world’s first all-electric car to the open market.

In addition to the Smart, which will be begin production later this year with a bath of 1000, Mercedes-Benz is planning to launch an electric car based in the curren...Read the full article

Tesla suddenly look very serious.

Tesla must be happy with the cash input at the moment considering not so long ago they were looking for hand outs from the US government.

To be honest though, it was only a matter of time before one of the major manufacturers bought in to the company.  It's a very cheap way of acquiring knowledge.

Autocar:

Mercedes-Benz is planning to launch an electric car based in the current A-Class.

Sounds like a sound investment. Wasn't the A-Class originally designed to accept a battery pack in the middle of the sandwich floor design? Given a decent range, I'd go for one of those.

TegTypeR:

To be honest though, it was only a matter of time before one of the major manufacturers bought in to the company.  It's a very cheap way of acquiring knowledge.

Definitely - a few million for a small stake, now tell us everything you know!