Electric cars, which are supposedly eco-friendly and fuel-efficient, still have not reach remarkable sales these past years. If these environment friendly cars were that amazing, why are we not seeing electric vehicles or EVs taking over the roads and highways?
Well, the answers are quite straightforward. If it is not a matter of acquisition cost, with EV commanding prices much higher than oil-fueled cars, it is a about the battery – poor performance and expensive price tag. And battery is what keeps EVs running. Bad battery means bad driving experience.
Over the last decade, carmakers have been into designing innovative EV batteries, but they have not succeeded in addressing cost and energy storage issues shrouding EV sales. Auspiciously, Mercedes thinks it has found the answer. But just how soon?
With its EV Boss, the German automaker claims motorists will enjoy double battery range. But perhaps innovating batteries for electric cars is not that easy. EV enthusiasts will have to wait another decade for the breakthrough EV battery.
During the Geneva Motor Show in March 2015, Harald Kroger, Mercedes’ vice-president of electronics and e-drive, told the press they expect to launch batteries with double range in ten years’ time by 2025. He adds there are “thousands of scientists working on the problem” and that “it’s doable in terms of the physics and chemistry”.
Mercedes is confident enough to pull the strings an overtake lithium-ion breakthrough technology that successfully outdated nickel-hydride years ago. He says that Tesla Motors Inc. is taking a huge risk when the American rival put up a $5 billion “gigafactory” designed to manufacture lithium-ion cells by 2017.
Tesla has since led the EV industry with its extremely fast accelerating electric cars. But Kroger claims it will not be long before Tesla tails behind other carmakers slated to release their competing versions of electric cars, further escalating rivalry in the EV market in the next decade or so.
During the recent Geneva Motor Show, Kroger says Mercedes will soon launch an upscale EV to compete with Tesla’s luxury EVs. Similarly, Audi reveals possible release of an all-electric Model S while Daimler AG discloses efforts to enter into the luxury EV market.
