Today, German business mag Handelsblatt is reporting that "people familiar with the matter" have told the publication that Mercedes-Benz plans to establish an all-electric sub-brand along the lines of BMW's 'i' initiative.
It's under this new banner that Benz would sell the four pure electric vehicles it wants to launch by 2020 to stick it to Elon Musk's upstart Tesla.
Handelsblatt reports that Benz plans to officially announce its new brand in September at the Paris auto show, where the company wants to show a small electric crossover called the ELC (based on the current GLC model) that would go head-to-head with the Tesla Model X. Benz will reportedly make a final decision in July on establishing the stand-alone brand.
