"Daimler Sees Electric Future For Smart and Mercedes-Benz Brands" Green Car Advisor

Daimler Sees Electric Future For Smart and Mercedes-Benz Brands

By John O'Dell, Senior Editor

German automotive giant Daimler says it has seen the future, and it is green and uses batteries.

The company, which last month launched a major electric car and charging station program in Berlin and has been testing electric Smart cars in London for almost a year, unveiled the newest generation of Smart EVs (or EDs - for electric drive) Thursday at the Paris Motor Show.

The tiny Smart, in production since 1998, is an attempt to help make individual transportation environmentally sound and sustainable and the quiet and emission-free ED versions, the company says, could be the answer.

Speeches at major auto shows are usually grandiose and full of promises, and Daimler Chairman Dieter Zetsche's was no exception as he talked of the future he sees for his company and the auto industry:

As people continue moving out of the suburbs and into cities to be closer to work and to cut their fuel bills, "the future will see an ever-increasing proportion of traffic on the roads in urban centers," Zetsche said.

"Zero-emission electric cars could shape the image of environmentally aware cities because zero local emission motoring is no longer science fiction - and also when seen as a whole emissions will be further reduced as the proportion of 'green' electricity increases. The future of mobility is green. We invented the car - and we will do it again!"

Daimler, which has helped develop advanced lithium ion batteries for the Smart and for upcoming hybrid and all-electric Mercedes-Benz models, leased 100 previous-generation Smart EDs in London at the end of 2007 for a pilot program in which the cars are used by private parties and government agencies for inter-city driving and for commuting into the city. Users supply Daimler with ongoing reports of their experiences with the electric cars.

Last month, Daimler and partner RWE, a major German power utility, launched a program in Berlin to lease 100 Smart and Mercede-Benz electric cars and to install 500 "intelligent" charging stations throughout the city.

Among other things, the system will be used to test an on-board unit that would communicate with the charging stations to ensure that the vehicle's battery is automatically charged with low-priced electricity when the commercial grid is not being used to full capacity or when there is an excess of electricity from alternative energy sources such as wind or solar power.

The charging stations also are designed to permit so-called vehicle-to-grid, or V2G, operation, in which power stored in an electric car's battery can be fed back into the commercial grid for use in homes and businesses at times of high demand

Daimler expects delivery of the Smart EDs to customers in the "E-Mobility Berlin" program to begin in 2010, and has said it wants to be building electric Smarts for the mass market by 2012.