<story><title>Mercedes Readies First Tesla Rival in $12B Attack</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-04/mercedes-readies-first-tesla-rival-in-12-billion-attack-plan</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Shebanator</author><text>Meh. MB are planning to &lt;i&gt;start&lt;/i&gt; production sometime in 2H2019, and no real details about the capabilities of the car. Meanwhile Porsche&amp;#x27;s Taycan will cost more than the Model S while having Model 3-like specs. The new Audi e-tron will also have 250 mile range and a 6 sec 0-60, both worse than the Tesla Model X.&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile Tesla has another 16 months or so to keep selling the Model 3 in large quantities. Color me unimpressed by the german companies&amp;#x27; efforts thus far.&lt;p&gt;It is telling though that most of the companies are focusing on SUVs and not sedans. Tesla needs to up its game with the X and Y to address this.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>samstave</author><text>I literally want a large Tesla Camper Van.&lt;p&gt;Or at least one of these in Tesla:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.mercedes-benz-vans.ca&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;sprinter-4x4&amp;#x2F;cargo-van&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.mercedes-benz-vans.ca&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;sprinter-4x4&amp;#x2F;cargo-van&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;p&gt;To further this thought, what I would truly wish would happen would be that A Tesla-like &amp;quot;drivetrain platform&amp;quot; were available to boutique shops who could build whatever type of cab they wanted onto a standardized system.&lt;p&gt;I worked with a guy in the 90s that took a Corvette Z base and put a 1938 ford on top of it.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d like to have the same be done with Tesla drive train bases - where you can have an upper made to fit the lower. Clearly, there would have to be safety standards to be met, so don&amp;#x27;t waste time arguing that point...</text></comment>
<story><title>Mercedes Readies First Tesla Rival in $12B Attack</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-04/mercedes-readies-first-tesla-rival-in-12-billion-attack-plan</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Shebanator</author><text>Meh. MB are planning to &lt;i&gt;start&lt;/i&gt; production sometime in 2H2019, and no real details about the capabilities of the car. Meanwhile Porsche&amp;#x27;s Taycan will cost more than the Model S while having Model 3-like specs. The new Audi e-tron will also have 250 mile range and a 6 sec 0-60, both worse than the Tesla Model X.&lt;p&gt;Meanwhile Tesla has another 16 months or so to keep selling the Model 3 in large quantities. Color me unimpressed by the german companies&amp;#x27; efforts thus far.&lt;p&gt;It is telling though that most of the companies are focusing on SUVs and not sedans. Tesla needs to up its game with the X and Y to address this.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>debt</author><text>&amp;quot;Meh.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;idk it&amp;#x27;s a very well-established 92-year-old luxury brand number 1 in their category, now investing billions in building an all-electric crossover. they already have a large established, loyal customer base.  $12 billion seems scarily low; meaning they know they won&amp;#x27;t need much to be able to sell this car.&lt;p&gt;this is a significant threat to Tesla; and the definitive moment we can say that Tesla has awoken the sleeping giants.&lt;p&gt;although on the flip this will help the industry as a whole; it&amp;#x27;s more likely than not that Tesla will sell even more electric cars because of this.</text></comment>