You've got to give Daimler credit for not spending too long licking its American wounds. Not even a month after finally paying to give away its last stake in Chrysler, the Mercedes-maker has plunked down a pretty sum (reportedly $50 mil) for a 10 % stake in Tesla. This adventure -- and have no doubt that it will be one, with Elon Musk still in charge of Tesla -- may be more suited to Daimler's appetite than the supersize-me empty-calorie junkfood binge that Chrysler proved to be.

Apart from putting some real industrial horsepower behind battery-electrics, this deal may also rehabilitate the rhetorical notion of synergy. Whereas the fantastical Chrycedes could never have been anything other than an imaginary automotive creature, Tesla and Daimler can actually help one another as EVs become a fixture within the three visible dimensions. Minimum expected results should be better Teslas -- thanks to Daimler development and manufacturing know-how, and better electric-only Smarts, coming in 2012 thanks to an existing agreement between the two companies -- based on Tesla's persistent perfecting of battery-only drivetrains.

The rub could be in the personalities. Chrysler's Bob Eaton was a quisling to not-missed Jeurgen Schrempp; Elon Musk could be to Daimler's Dieter Zetsche what in the 1980s Ross Perot was to GM's Roger Smith -- a huge pain in the ass.

Have the ordnung-crazy Daimlerites changed their spots? Can Elon keep his big American trap shut? Stay tuned; this could get good.