Autos July 20, 2009, 11:30AM EST

Daimler: The Dawning of the Age of Electric Cars

The German automaker touts the London test of a fleet of its electric Smart cars and the progress of alternative-fuel technologies under development

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Talk to people in the auto industry, and you'll hear lots of reasons why electric cars are years away from practicality. But "those are just excuses," scoffs Tilo Schweers, director of Daimler's (DAI) electric Smart car test project. A fleet of battery-powered Smarts is already in use in London, he points out, and many of the feared drawbacks haven't materialized.

Drivers haven't been left stranded on the streets when their cars run out of juice, he says, nor is the cost out of line. Daimler leases 100 e-Smarts to customers for £400 ($660) a month, which isn't cheap for a two-seat minicar. But owners don't need to pay London's congestion charge, and they save on fuel and maintenance, which brings the cost close to that of a conventional vehicle. Daimler isn't losing money on the deal either, Schweers says—the leasing payments cover the company's costs even if there is no profit yet.

Schweers, who's obviously enthusiastic about his work, explains this as I steer one of the electric Smarts around pylons set up on an unused airport runway outside Stuttgart. Daimler invited journalists to the rural landing strip on July 20 to try out its growing array of electric, hybrid, and hydrogen-powered vehicles. Many are prototypes, but the Smart I'm driving saw everyday use in London before Daimler shipped it back to Germany. The wear shows in the nicked interior and slightly faded upholstery.

Technology Advances

There are plenty of obstacles to be overcome before the streets are swarming with emissions-free vehicles. And Daimler's top executives sound more cautious than Schweers when they talk about alternatives to the internal combustion engine.

But this well-broken-in Smart suggests that the day when electric cars are commonplace may not be as far away as some skeptics think. "Electric-vehicle technology has made enormous progress," Mercedes R&D chief Thomas Weber told reporters.

For now, Daimler is still putting most of its energy into optimizing internal combustion engines. The company's Mercedes unit is pushing down the fuel consumption of the company's luxury cars with measures such as turbocharged diesel engines, lightweight materials, and tires with lower rolling resistance. Mercedes has also begun offering hybrids, beginning with the top-of-the-line S-Class, which went on sale in June. Weber promises full-size luxury cars with economy-car fuel consumption within a few years.

But more exotic technologies are further along than many people outside Daimler probably realize. The most advanced on view July 20 was the Mercedes BlueZERO E-Cell prototype, a four-seat electric car with lightweight construction and transparent solar cells on the roof. Because it's a one-off experimental car, journalists weren't allowed to drive it. That honor was reserved for R&D chief Weber. "Fascinating, eh?" he exclaimed, as he zoomed around the runway with me in the backseat.

No Performance Trade-Offs

Electric cars don't have to be compacts. Daimler also displayed a hybrid version of its Sprinter commercial vehicle, which in this case was fitted out as a minibus with seven rear seats. The hybrid Sprinter can run solely on battery power, which could be important in coming years as some European cities impose strict emissions limits on center-city traffic.

Mercedes also showed off a modified B-Class midsize four-seater that runs on a hydrogen-powered fuel cell and emits only water. My short test drive on rural roads made it clear that drivers don't have to make any performance or comfort trade-offs with such a car. On the contrary, the fuel cell provides snappy acceleration and is much quieter than a conventional diesel- or gasoline-powered power plant. Daimler managed to squeeze all the drive components underneath the floor, so the car has just as much space as the conventional B-Class. Working in combination with a battery—a sort of hydrogen hybrid—a fuel-cell car could have a range of 360 miles (600km), Daimler says.