Daimler’s S400 BlueHybrid, due out in mid-2009, is slated to become the first hybrid car with an electric motor powered by a lithium-ion battery.
At 26kg and the size of a briefcase – compared with Toyota’s and Honda’s more cumbersome nickel-hydride batteries, which take up a large portion of their vehicles’ boot space – Mercedes hopes its battery, and its luxury S-Class, can wrest some control from Japanese automakers who have dominated the electric car market until now.
The new hybrid represents a world record in fuel economy for luxury cars, according to Mercedes. By combining a fuel motor with an electric motor, which stores brake energy released on acceleration, the dual engine – a 279-horsepower V6 supported by a 20-horsepower electric motor – enables a top speed of 155mph and 0-60mph acceleration in 7.2 seconds.
Yet it consumes just 7.9 litres of petrol per 60 miles (30 miles per gallon) compared with the conventional Mercedes S350, which consumes 10.1 litres (23mpg).
“The lithium-ion battery is the key component for [making vehicles] electric and for creating sustainable mobility,” said Eva Wiese, spokesman for technologies and environmental communications at Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart. The new technology applies not only to hybrid vehicles, she said, but to all battery-operated vehicles, including plug-in hybrids, full hybrids and electric vehicles.
Mercedes’ green gamble doesn’t stop there. The company will roll out a series of all-electric Smart cars next year (a test fleet of 100 is currently plying the streets of London), with plans to produce an electric version of its
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A-Class by 2010 – both powered by lithium-ion batteries.
However, the 120-volt battery won’t be cheap – at least not at first. With cells produced by a French supplier, Saft, initial cost estimate for the lithium-ion battery are €1,500 (£1,200).
Karl-Thomas Neumann, the CEO of Continental, which developed the battery, called the technology an “important breakthrough” that will help fuel 2m new hybrid cars reaching the market by 2012, which will drastically lower costs.
Mercedes, which lagged for many years developing its place in the hybrid market, faces stiff competition. Peugeot and Citroën are pushing their hybrid and electric technologies at the Paris Auto Show in October, while Renault, Mitsubishi and General Motors have staked out ways to go electric.
Only its fellow German automaker, Volkswagen, which unveiled its latest Golf model two weeks ago – with neither hybrid nor electric options – has been slower warming to the hybrid future.