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The Mercedes EQB is the third all-electric model the automaker has rolled out so far this year,

After a slow start, Mercedes is ramping up its assault on the battery-car market with the launch of the new EQB sport-utility vehicle at the Shanghai Auto Show.

Available with up to seven seats, the EQB debuts barely a week after the automaker unveiled its all-electric flagship, the EQS, the latter to serve as the battery-powered alternative to the classic Mercedes-Benz S-Class that also has been redesigned this year. The year began with the rollout of the EQA, bringing to three the number of battery-electric vehicles the German automaker has debuted in less than four months, with still more products to come.

“With the all new EQB we have created an iconic electric SUV that takes the heritage of our boxy off-road vehicles and transforms this into the future,” said Gorden Wagener, chief design officer of Daimler Group — who spoke to TheDetroitBureau this past week in an exclusive Q&A. “We combine the significant boxy silhouette with futuristic elements such as the black-panel front to create the extraordinary look of the vehicle.”

Lot’s in common with the familiar Mercedes GLB

The EQB will debut in its most premium form on the Chinese market, with Europe and the U.S. to follow.

At 184 inches in length, 72 inches in width and 66 inches in height, and with a wheelbase of 66 inches, the Mercedes EQB’s dimensions are nearly identical to those of the conventional GLB crossover. But, like the rest of the new Mercedes EQ family, the new model mounts batteries, motors and other key electrical components below the load floor in a skateboard-like platform.

The design is not nearly as radical as that of the new EQS sedan, with its breakout “one-bow” styling. The EQB could be confused, at a casual glance, with the more familiar GLB, starting with the traditional two-box SUV silhouette.

But a closer inspection reveals a number of distinctive details, starting up front with a large black grille with the Mercedes tri-star that is there primarily for appearance sake. As with other BEVs, there is little need for airflow under the hood without an internal combustion engine. Smaller air intakes below the bumper provide cooling air for the battery pack, brakes and electronics.

Another distinctive touch is the fiber-optic lighting strip that runs just below the hood cutline, linking the EQB’s LED headlights and daytime running lights.

Plenty of room

The Mercedes EQB will offer an optional third row.

The interior is likely also to feel familiar to current EQB owners, starting with the large, twin videoscreens, one replacing a conventional gauge cluster, the other serving the infotainment unit. That system can be operated by voice, a console-mounted touchpad, controls on the steering wheel or by using the MBUX operating system. The Alexa-like voice assistant recognizes plain language commands and can also perform tasks like checking the weather.

The new model also integrates what Mercedes calls “Navigation with Electric Intelligence” which, it says, “contributes to the effortless handling of the EQB in everyday life. It calculates the fastest route to the destination, taking into account maximum charging power and the duration of possible charging stops. In addition, the Navigation with Electric Intelligence ensures that the high-voltage battery is brought to an optimal charging temperature before a planned charging stop, as needed.”

The new Mercedes EQB comes standard in a five-passenger configuration. But it also can be ordered with a third row adding room for two more. The center row can tilt and slide fore and aft by as much as 5.5 inches.

A staggered global rollout

A variety of different powertrains and battery packs will be offered for the Mercedes EQB.

The automaker plans to offer the EQB in a number of different markets and a variety of different configurations. It will reach showrooms first in China, not surprisingly, a country that has laid out an aggressive plan for growing its electrified vehicle market. The initial Chinese version, said Mercedes in a statement, will be “a fully equipped top-of-the-range model with AMG Line and an output of 288 horsepower.”

Europe will get the EQB later this year and, said Mercedes, “customers will have the choice between several models with front-wheel and all-wheel drive and various power levels, some rated at over 268 hp.”

The U.S. introduction is scheduled for 2022, but the automaker is being vague about the details of what will be offered in that market. It is considered likely that American buyers will have at least one of the higher-output drive systems with all-wheel drive available as an option, if not a standard feature.

Quick charging

The cabin will be relatively familiar to current Mercedes-Benz GLB owners.

Mercedes noted that the European battery pack will be a relatively modest 66.5 kilowatt-hours, only a fraction larger than what Chevrolet offers in the Bolt EV and newer Bolt EUV. But “a long-range version also is planned” for different markets, said the company.

The EQB features an 11 kilowatt onboard charger. It also can plug into a public quick charger and, with at least 100 kW of DC power will go from a 10% to an 80% charge in 30 minutes.

There has been speculation that a higher-power version of the EQB also may be in the works. The gas-powered, seven-seat Mercedes-AMG GLB 35 punches out 302 horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque, getting it to 60 in about 5 seconds. The EQB does have the advantage of instantaneous torque from its electric drive system, though Mercedes has not released performance figures yet.

Pricing yet to be announced

Also yet to be revealed: pricing for the various EQB models.

The new Mercedes EQB will be assembled at the automaker’s plant in Kecskemet, Hungary. It will be the factory’s first all-electric model, though it has already handled plug-in hybrid versions of the Mercedes-Benz CLA line and will add the A-Class plug-in sometime in the future.

All told, Mercedes says that most of the $85 billion product development money it has outlined for 2021-2025 will go towards battery and digital technologies. By the end of 2022 it plans to have eight all-electric models in showrooms around the world.

“The company envisages that more than 50% of its passenger car unit sales will be accounted for by plug-in hybrids or all-electric vehicles by 2030,” it said in a statement released last week.


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GM is reportedly looking to apply for a banking charter for its financing unit, GM Financial.

General Motors has been generating plenty of attention for its plans to shift to battery-electric vehicle production; however, the auto company has also been looking to get back into some old businesses too, namely banking.

It’s an oversimplification, but the Wall Street Journal reported today that GM’s captive financing unit, General Motors Financial Company Inc. is seeking to apply for a banking charter. The move would allow the company to accept deposits — like a bank. The move is part of a strategy allowing it to form an industrial loan company.

The specialized charter gives a company the ability to own a commercial firm and banks — typically a no-no with a traditional banking license, the newspaper noted. GM has done this before with its GMAC unit, which not only offered auto loans, but also home mortgages and other types of lending options.

(GM financial arm strengthens loan portfolio.)

GM’s financing arm, GM Financial, has contributed to the auto company’s bottom line in growing amounts of significance during the past decade.

That could occur as early as next month, according to sources cited by the WSJ. The company has been nosing around the subject with federal and state regulators for several months. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Utah Department of Financial Institutions are reportedly on board with this.

GMAC nearly failed during the Great Recession in 2008 due to subprime mortgages. The government bailed the unit it out and it was renamed Ally Financial, and GM eventually sold its stake in 2013. Ally Financial currently offers auto loans for several automakers, including Fiat Chrysler and Hyundai, as well as offering online banking resources.

According to WSJ sources, this would not be round two of GMAC, rather the deposits would be used to help with the automotive loan business. It would essentially act as a low-cost form of capital for those auto loans. Currently, the unit has to issue debt in order to provide financing for its customers. It’s possible the newly chartered unit would offer high-yield savings accounts as well as other deposit-based accounts to consumers.

(Treasury adds capital to GMAC Financial Services.)

GM isn’t alone in offering financing to potential buyers. In fact, it’s often part of the marketing push to draw customers into dealerships by advertising low rates on new car loans and leases. It gives dealers a chance to secure sales to buyers with less-than-ideal credit scores.

The move to accept deposits would give GM Financial a low-cost form of capital for auto loans.

In the case of GM Financial, it’s added some green to the company’s bottom line. It generated $14.5 billion in 2019, accounting for 10.6% of GM’s overall revenue, WSJ noted. In 2010, the unit’s revenue was less than 1% of auto company’s revenue while it rose to 4.2% in 2015.

Getting the industrial loan company structure in place wouldn’t make it unique in the auto industry, the newspaper noted. Toyota Motor Co. and BMW AG employ similar units to not only offer auto financing, but home mortgages and credit cards. What is different is that few companies have attempted to get back into that business since the 2008 banking collapse.

(GM delivers $4B in Q3 earnings as auto market rebounds.)

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•

The production version of the i4 Concept will reach the U.S. next year. It will use a shared platform.

A week before unveiling the all-new iNext battery-electric vehicle, BMW said it will “realign” its strategy and begin developing a unique architecture solely for “electric drives,” rather than sharing the same platform for vehicles using both battery and conventional gas and diesel powertrains.

That’s a complete about face for the Bavarian marque which, in recent years, had hoped to save money and simplify manufacturing by coming up with common architectures that could roll off the same line. But it also marks a return to BMW’s original strategy when electrified models like the all-electric i3 city car and plug-in hybrid i8 sports car used unique platforms.

“The aim is to create an overall optimum with the new architecture,” CEO Oliver Zipse said during BMW’s quarterly earnings presentation on Wednesday.

(BMW preps for i4 launch, confirms plans for all-electric 5-Series and X1.)

Over the past decade, the auto industry has gone back and forth on the appropriate approach to developing electrified vehicles, pure battery-electric models, in particular. Some, like the Ford Focus Electric and the Volkswagen e-Golf, shared common platforms with the gas and diesel versions of those vehicles. Others, such as the original BMW i models, as well as the new Ford Mustang Mach-E and VW ID.3, used unique architectures.

BMW says the production iNext should get nearly 400 miles of range per charge.

Each approach had both pluses and minuses. Shared platforms result in design compromises, often limiting the amount of batteries that could be stored on a vehicle – impacting range, among other things. But development costs can be held down, while increasing the flexibility of a company’s assembly lines.

Unique platforms, most adopting a skateboard-style layout with batteries and motors mounted below the load floor, can handle larger packs, increasing range and lowering a vehicle’s center of gravity. But that means additional development costs and the tooling up of plants dedicated solely to EVs.

With an upcoming wave of new products BMW had aimed for a compromise strategy. They use flexible platforms that can squeeze more batteries under the load floor for models like the all-electric i4 fastback due out next year. But there’s space for a conventional internal combustion engine for products such as the next BMW 4-Series.

Now, , “We will realign our vehicle architecture from the middle of the decade,” said Zipse, adding that, “Our new cluster architecture is geared towards electric drives” exclusively.

BMW’s i3 is one of the automaker’s best-selling electric vehicles. It uses a unique, rather than shared, platform.

“Our new plant in Hungary plays a key role here,” said the CEO, noting that production of “the new BEV-centered architecture will start there.”

(BMW and Mercedes suspend joint autonomous vehicle development program.)

The plan is to make the new strategy a high priority, an all-new product development operation reporting directly to Zipse. But it will be able to reach out to all other areas within the company, from engineering to sales and marketing which “gives us more control and makes us much faster,” he explained.

The shared platform strategy had come under intense scrutiny within BMW, noted German magazine Automobilwoche, Over the summer, Manfred Wochs, the head of the BMW Works Council, had warned that it resulted in “too many compromises” that could set BMW back competitively, especially in key markets like the U.S. and China.

BMW is racing to get a leg up in an emerging market segment that currently is dominated by the upstart Tesla – with an assortment of traditional competitors, as well as start-ups like Lucid, Fisker and Rivian, aiming to gain share.

But Zipse insisted that BMW will be ready when its new EVs hit market around 2025. “We anticipate that the demand for fully electric vehicles will continue to increase significantly from 2025 onwards. Exactly then – keyword timing – we will ignite phase III of our transformation.”

(BMW may go for a plug-in hybrid with upcoming X8 M.)

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk got his massive payday, and is now the third wealthiest man in the world.

The day after Tesla completed its 5-for-1 stock split, the EV maker revealed it plans to sell as much as $5 billion of the newly divided shares to help offset future debt needs.

The California-based EV maker saw its stock take off this year like a SpaceX rocket, passing $2,000 a share just before the split. Not only did the stunning rise in prices make it the world’s most valuable automaker, it made CEO Elon Musk the third-richest man in the world.

Selling stock isn’t uncommon after a split as companies often look to raise money for a variety of reasons, and Tesla has several that $5 billion could handily address. The company had $8.6 billion in cash and cash equivalents at the end of June.

(Tesla CEO Musk hints of big battery breakthrough.)

This is going to be a familiar site for Tesla officials as the company is building two new Gigafactories: one near Berlin, Germany and one near Austin, Texas.

Tesla’s got several irons in the fire right — expensive irons, if you will. The company is in the midst of building a Gigafactory in Berlin, Germany and recently announced it would start construction on its second U.S. Gigafactory on a large site just outside of Austin, Texas.

Additionally, Musk appears to be trying to accelerate the development and production of the Cybertruck as well as the Semi truck as competitors like Nikola, Daimler, Lordstown, General Motors, Rivian, Ford and others are closing the gap in their move to produce electric trucks of all sizes.

According to the company’s official filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, it plans to use proceeds from the offering to strengthen its balance sheet and for general corporate purposes. Tesla’s shares were down 4.76% today to $475.05 in late-day trading.

(EV sales slumped during first half, even Tesla losing ground despite launch of Model Y.)

Craig Irwin, a Roth Capital Partners analyst who has the equivalent of a ‘hold’ rating on the stock, on Tuesday said the capital raise did not come as a surprise.

Tesla’s Cybertruck is slated to begin production next year: another big expense for the EV maker.

“They will need cash for all the facilities they are building, and new growth initiatives,” Irwin told Reuters.

Other analysts were uncertain if Tesla would actually sell $5 billion in stock, perhaps being comfortable with less. David Whiston, an analyst at Morningstar Research, said he wasn’t certain how much the company would raise, suggesting to Reuters that the automaker doesn’t “need the money right now.”

“I can understand them taking advantage of the stock’s incredible run, but they don’t need the money right now,” Whiston said.

(Tesla announced 5-for-1 stock split; shares rise again.)

Tesla in February had announced plans to raise $2 billion in a stock offering. The company’s market capitalization is around $465 billion. The move pushed Musk’s personal net worth past $100 billion.

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} div#gJSomKNtPm div#gJSomKNtPm_inpost .mo-optin-form-description, div#gJSomKNtPm div.mo-optin-form-container div#gJSomKNtPm_inpost p { font-size: 16px !important; } div#gJSomKNtPm div#gJSomKNtPm_inpost .mo-optin-form-note, div#gJSomKNtPm div#gJSomKNtPm_inpost .mo-optin-form-note * { font-size: 12px !important; } }div#gJSomKNtPm .mo-mailchimp-interest-container { margin: 0 10px 2px; } div#gJSomKNtPm .mo-mailchimp-interest-label { font-size: 16px; margin: 5px 0 2px; } div#gJSomKNtPm input.mo-mailchimp-interest-choice { line-height: normal; border: 0; margin: 0 5px; } div#gJSomKNtPm span.mo-mailchimp-choice-label { vertical-align: middle; font-size: 14px; } div#gJSomKNtPm .mo-mailchimp-interest-choice-container { margin: 5px 0; }div#gJSomKNtPm .mo-mailchimp-interest-label { display:inline-block!important; } div#gJSomKNtPm span.mo-mailchimp-choice-label { vertical-align:baseline!important; } div#gJSomKNtPm .mo-mailchimp-interest-container { padding:18px 0 6px 0; } div#gJSomKNtPm .mo-mailchimp-choice-label { font-size:16px!important; }