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Shortly after U.S. President Barack Obama announced his plans to introduce new fuel efficiency standards in the United States (->>> Obama ends the dominance of gas guzzlers on U.S. streets), the German luxury carmaker Daimler and the Californian electric-car maker Tesla Motors deepened their partnership. German Daimler AG acquried an almost 10% stake in the electric car pioneer Tesla which is known for manufacturing the luxury all-electric sportscar Tesla Roadster costing about $100,000. The driving range is approximately 244 miles on a single charge. It accelerates from 0 mph to 60 mph [96 km/h] in 3.9 seconds. Nevertheless, the super-efficient sportscar has a fuel economy equivalent of 256 miles per gallon.

The partnership between both companies began two years earlier when Daimler asked Tesla to provide the battery packs for Daimler’s electric Smart.

Tesla became the leading manufacturer of highway capable electric cars when it developed a practical battery pack which is comprised of about 6,800 lithium-ion batteries like they’re being used in laptops.

For more information on Tesla Motors, go to >>>>>>> This car is hot! - Tesla Motors’ electric sportscar

By 2011, Tesla wants to introduce the Tesla Model S, the world’s first fully electric four-door, five-passenger sedan to the market. The upcoming Tesla models are to be more affordable to open up new market segments. The Tesla Model S could be modeled upon the Mercedes-Benz E-Class to combine the know-how of both carmakers. In the past year, Tesla only sold about 400 Roadsters. Due to the multi-million dollar deal with Daimler, production capacities will be ramped up so that 20,000 units of Model S can be manufactured annually.

Daimler’s interest in electric mobility partly derives from pressure by the E.U. to reduce the tailpipe emissions of its fleet significantly to avoid paying high fines. In March this year, Daimler founded the Deutsche Accumotive GmbH, a joint venture with Evonik Industries to improve lithium-ion batteries and reduce production costs of battery systems and electric-drive technology.

The close partnership between Daimler and Tesla is an important step towards the introduction of electric cars to the mass market. As production volumes go up and battery technology advances, electric cars will become more affordable and lighter. As a recent study by the  German IFA (institute for automotive business) shows, electric cars might even be cheaper than conventional cars by the year 2020 provided that gasoline prices bounce back to their 2008 record levels and that governments forgo to increase taxes on alternative transportation solutions.

Strategic partnership: Daimler acquires stake in Tesla : http://www.teslamotors.com/media/press_room.php?id=1356

This entry was posted on Friday, May 29th, 2009 at 6:04 PM and is filed under Electric Cars & Auto Industry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.