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Mercedes has teamed up with China car manufacturer BYD to create a whole new automotive firm for the Chinese market. Though the name hasn't been cast in stone yet, it is by no surprise as to why Mercedes has chosen BYD to be their partner in China when you see the cars that BYD has produced so far. They look almost identical to the cars the Merc produced in the late 1990s! Not only do their cars look identical, their logo is 'inspired' by BMW as well. However, the main partnership between Merc and BYD will be focused predominantly on building cost effective electric cars, and as we all know by now, China is the best place to start looking for 'cost effectiveness'. Apparently, despite the fact that Mercedes spends millions of dollars a day on Research and Development, they haven't found ways to produce an electric car in the cheapest possible way and thus explains their decision to direct their problem to China, where they have found their solution. BYD's Lithium-Ion and Mercedes' Li-Tech battery technology will be combined in the process of manufacturing the new car. Both companies will be sharing their resources and the result will be a car which is cheap to own and will probably do 300,000km since keeping a car for any longer than that is just not the way to go in China. And I think thats true. Mercedes has definitely gone to the right people when they decided they need to learn how to do things cheaply, and in about 3 years time, the world will be able to see the first Mercedes-BYD electric car. Let's see how good, or bad that's going to be.