Elon Purchases Mercedes Benz?! (Mercedes Musk)

The possibility of Elon Musk owning Mercedes Benz may be on the horizon. Source: Daimler Mercedes Benz (Creative Commons License).

Elon Musk is all but set to purchase Twitter, with both parties having agreed to a price. However, even before the drama with the Twitter buyout started, there had been rumors of another publicly-traded company being purchased by Musk; Mercedes Benz! Is Musk really buying the famous German carmaker?

Interestingly, it seems the media is warm to the idea as there are many articles online and videos on YouTube dissecting the scenario of Musk buying Mercedes Benz. But can Musk afford to take Mercedes Benz private?

Mercedes Benz has a current market capitalization of just over $70 billion. As we all know, Musk doesn't have all that cash lying around because his wealth is tied to his shares in the companies he runs. However, not having enough cash did not stop him from purchasing Twitter. Musk found a way to raise the capital necessary and could most likely do the same if he so desired with Mercedes Benz.

The idea of Musk buying Mercedes probably started from a Reuter article by Christopher Thompson in 2020. Around that time, Musk had said at a conference that he was open to the idea of buying a carmaker. Thompson suggested Mercedes' parent company, Daimler, was a good fit for Tesla to take over.

Since then, there has been no further word from Musk on buying a carmaker. Also, Mercedes has never confirmed if it had been approached with a takeover bid by Tesla or any other company. All the videos exploring the possibility of Musk add a disclaimer that the content is for entertainment purposes only.

However, not having enough cash did not stop him from purchasing Twitter. Musk found a way to raise the capital necessary and could most likely do the same if he so desired with Mercedes Benz.

There are several reasons Mercedes may not fit into Musk's electric vehicle plans. For example, Mercedes hasn't committed to fully eliminating internal combustion engine cars from its product lineup. The German automaker revealed it would continue to produce and sell ICEs in regions where the market has not matured enough for EVs. By assuming

Mercedes newest EV the EQXX completed a 1,000km trip on a single charge. Source: TopGear.com (Creative Commons License).

control of Mercedes, Tesla will find itself in the position where it has to either continue making ICEs or shelf the plan, which will result in substantial financial loss.

This is beside the point that Mercedes does not appear to need a rescue as it is not facing any financial problems. It still has many fans globally and is making huge strides even in EVs. Its EQXX recently completed a 1,000 km trip on a single charge with enough battery for another 140 km. Quite an impressive feat for a company that has its foot in both ICE vehicles and EV manufacturing.