Daimler says it will announce a "strategic cooperation to make electro mobility a reality" on Tuesday, and we're betting it is about to hitch its wagon to Tesla Motors. It's just a hunch at this point and no one at either company is commenting, but the evidence - though circumstantial - is there.
The German automaker already is getting 1,000 lithium ion battery packs from the Silicon Valley startup for its Smart EV program. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has always said Daimler could come back for more. And heavyweight Tesla investor Victor Morgenstern recently was overheard shooting his mouth off about a "big announcement ... which should, number one, make people believers that the Sedan is going to be produced."
Daimler owns a 49.1 percent stake in Li-Tek, a subsidiary of Evonik, in a battery partnership for Mercedes. It wants another partner to develop packs for passenger cars. Tesla is a logical choice.
Should such a deal be announced Tuesday, it will be a boon for Tesla.
The company needs cash in a big way. It was down to $9 million at one point last year and went through a round of layoffs in October. More recently, it effectively raised the price of the Roadster to "ensure viability."
Granted, it received a $40 million round of financing and Musk has said the company will be profitable this year, but it's going to take more than that to build the Model S sedan. We might also see Daimler providing components, if not an entire chassis, for the S. That would go a long way toward helping Tesla meets its goal of getting the car on the road by 2011.
As we said, this is all speculation. We'll know more tomorrow.
Photo: Jim Merithew / Wired.com
