Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive to be scrapped to make room for new EV brand

Production of the Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive is to stop later on this year, as the firm introduces its upcoming EQ branded range of EVs.

The B-Class was the first mass-produced fully electric model by Mercedes, however, Auto Express has reported that it will be axed from the firm’s line-up.

Once the car is removed from the line-up, the only two fully electric vehicles built by Mercedes will be the SmartForTwo and the ForFour.

The B-Class’s electric powertrain was co-developed with and partially sourced from Tesla and has a range of 124 miles on the NEDC scale.

Mercedes now aims to manufacture cars under its all-electric ‘EQ’ sub-brand, and will see the firm aim to sell over 10 different fully electric cars by 2022.

The new sub-brand is also part of a plan to build a 500 million euro lithium-ion battery factory in Germany, in order to support higher battery production volumes.

According to Auto Express, these plans will also include the electrification of vans, trucks and buses in the future.