A 10% stake was purchased by Daimler in Tesla. This was to support and back up Smart and Tesla to produce and sell more electric cars in the open market.
Smart cars which will be driven electrically will be produced to the tune of 1,000 numbers. The production is likely to start from later this year. The batteries and charging systems which will be used for this car will be produced by Tesla.
Plans to set in motion an electric car by Mercedes-Benz is also in the offing. It has plans to base its electric car on the present A-Class next year.
Tesla, in the intervening time, will apply Daimler’s engineering, production and supply chain expertness along with its lithium-ion battery pack to accelerate the production of its next car, the Model S. This model is most likely to be on sale in the US towards the end of 2011.