Daimler, the company with more twin-turbo V12s in production than any other manufacturer, just bought 10% of Tesla, the plucky, upstart Silicon Valley based electric car company that’s run by the bad guy from Die Another Day internet billionaire Elon Musk. Tesla watchers won’t be all that surprised by the announcement, as both companies have been (kinda) showing off the jointly developed battery-powered Smart Car for the past couple months. Obviously, with today’s news about a 35.5 mpg fleet average by 2016, the company that makes many 13 mpg AMG products needs all the green help in can get. As for Tesla, they get that suitcase stuffed with cash they’re been looking for. Slight side note — there have been rumors floating around for some time now that the Model S Sedan concept Tesla showed off back in March was nothing more than a re-skinned Mercedes S-Class juiced by batteries. Today’s announcement would at least explain where Musk and pals got the rolling chassis. Much more on this quasi-merger of absolutely non-equals as the story breaks. [Source: Wired]