Daimler AG plans from next year to equip a version of its S- Class sedan with a lithium-ion battery, a means of storing power commonly used in laptop computers and portable music players, Bloomberg News reported today. The battery, which will last about 10 years, won't be sufficient to run the vehicle on its own, Brock said. The Stuttgart-based company has yet to set a price for the technology. Carmakers are speeding development of electric vehicles to help comply with European legislation that will limit carbon dioxide emissions. The main drawback of batteries is their limited range and the time it takes to charge them, Daimler's research chief Thomas Weber has said. The technology was developed by Daimler researchers who have been working on lithium-ion batteries for use in automobiles since 1992, the company said in an e-mailed statement. – Detroit News Service, Feb 29. 2008
I am straying away a little bit from the subject of the M3… but, I hope BMW leads the industry with new technologies rather than bringing out more of the old technology. I think German automakers are very scared now. They spent (and are spending) a lot of money in R&D to clean up inherently dirty diesel engines just to please economy-minded EU consumers. They now realize the Prius type hybrids are very viable means to reduce fuel consumption and air pollution. When the first generation of Prius was introduced 10 years ago, they sneezed at it as being too complicated and expensive. Now they have to do catch-up work. The key to electric propulsion of automobiles is the battery. If you have the battery, the rest is easy. They should have spent the diesel R&D money on battery development instead.
