Tesla has taken the automotive industry by storm with its Model S and other automakers are looking for a way to catch up. Mercedes-Benz is at the forefront of the electric vehicle arms race and plans to take the fight to Tesla with four new electric models. According to a report by UK's Car Magazine, the German automaker will launch four new electric vehicles in 2018, which will all be aimed at Tesla. We're not huge fans of electric vehicles, but the Model S is an incredible machine and we're sure that Mercedes electric cars will be up for a fight.

Sources at Mercedes have revealed that the first electric vehicle will come to the market a year earlier than originally planned to ensure that the automaker is on par with Porsche's and Audi's electric vehicles, which will also arrive in 2018. Mercedes is set to launch a 2 billion Euro "Ecoluxe" project after its new Electric Vehicle Architecture (EVA) was approved by the board. The first electric car will be a sedan that will be sized between the C- and E-class, while the second electric car will be a crossover that will bridge the gap between the GLC and GLE. The electric cars will be built at the Bremen plant and will accommodate the assembly of EVA Phase II, which will add an S-class sized sedan and an even larger SUV.

This may not be a lot of information to go on, but the electric vehicles from Mercedes will gather inspiration from the Concept IAA seen at the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show with some tweaked aerodynamics. An electric Mercedes-Benz that has the same look as the Concept IAA and similar performance to a Model S sounds incredible, but we'll have to wait to see how good it really would be.