Tesla CEO, Takes A Dig At Mercedes Benz's Investment In Electric Cars And Battery Production In The US
Media outlets have already come up with a name for it, and it isn’t surprising – “Attack On Tesla.” This campaign came into the fray with Daimler, Mercedes-Benz’s parent company, announcing their $1 billion investment in electric car and battery production in the US. This was not aimed solely at providing competition to current market leaders; Tesla, but also a major advancement for Mercedes in the Autonomous Segment.
The bold claim didn’t seriously go well with Tesla CEO, Elon Musk as he was quoted on Twitter arguing that it was not actually that big of an investment relative to Daimler’s size.
That's not a lot of money for a giant like Daimler/Mercedes. Wish they'd do more. Off by a zero.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 24, 2017
He added that he’d like to see them add a zero to their investment in electric vehicles, make it $10 billion. Back in 2009, Daimler was key to Telsa’s survival as the German Automaker invested $50 million – an investment that saved the Musk’s startup from going bankrupt. But in 2015, due to insider reasons and other propaganda; Daimler sold their shares for a more-than-healthy profit and they discontinued their contract with Tesla.
According to online publishing magazine, Electrek; Musk isn’t wrong to quote so. With Daimler generating over $180 billion in revenue last year, $1 billion is really nothing for them. But with Daimler working, on their own electric vehicle programs now, we are starting to see the results with the first vehicle, the Mercedes-Benz EQC, an all-electric SUV, coming to market in 2019.