Mercedes has announced plans to produce the first hybrid cars with powerful lithium-ion batteries. The cars won't roll off the assembly lines until 2009, but the Germans are hoping to break Japanese dominance of the electric-motor market.
Mercedes-Benz will unveil a new car battery this week. It uses about as much space as a conventional lead battery (meant only to start engines), but it packs a whopping 120 volts -- about ten times the power of its more ordinary cousin -- and it will be used, starting next year, in the luxury Mercedes S-Class line of hybrids.
The S-Class will be the world's first series-production hybrid car with an electric motor powered by a lithium-ion battery. Daimler hopes to position itself on the cutting edge of hybrid technology, a field where European carmakers, for years, have lagged behind their Japanese competitors.
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