Daimler Makes Breakthrough in Lithium-Ion Battery Technology

lithium is the way to go. 30 plus mpg compared to 18 mpg is definately a big step.

That's where the S 300 BlueTec HYBRID comes in :). Should be great.

Well yes, but what mercedes has done is found a way to make it more realistic of an option and more reliable. With the tesla you would notice big performance differences between hot and cold weather, and the inconsistency of temperature found in the tesla gives the resultant battery lifetime of only 100,000km. Like a computer the hotter it runs the slower it runs and will eventually overheat and short out, what mercedes has done is put a big ass heatsink on the battery practically to always keep it in the optimum operating temp thus increasing performance consistency and lifetime.

The battery life isn't 100,000 kms. The warranty is that long. Warranties are based upon the percentage of vehicles that will be returned. I am guessing 5-8% of the tesla car's will be fixed under warranty, in which case the owner has a brand new battery and another ton of miles they can put on their car. Also it's funny you can bring up mileage with a straight face. How many MB cars actually make it to 100,000kms? No I am not talking about reliability, I am saying for the price point most of these cars do not end up as daily drivers.

I'm sure they will be daily drivers, i dont think anyone buys a hybrid with the intention of only using it on weekends for shopping. But the thing is these S Classes last a long time, maybe even 20 years, re-sale after re-sale, throughout the life of an S-Class hybrid i am sure it will accumulate over 100,000km. The thing with batteries is they are fairly predictable in breakdowns unlike mechanical parts, so im sure that when they did the statistical analysis for that warranty that the difference between their upper and lower 2.5% was only 10,000km or so not 50,000km, so really it might break down earlier and be under warranty, but most of them will probably break down shortly after the warranty. That's the way all cars are designed, to statistically break down after warranty on certain components.

To Joe: Well, we've recently sold 2 MBs that have topped 170,000kms, do they count? Oh yeah, neither had a single fault and were from the "unreliable" era (09 onwards). I agree with the rest of your comment but the MB part is sheer, unadultered ignorance. MB are also back to making reliable, quality cars again, proven by their cars going much higher up in reliablity surveys since the A-Class (probs the first car of the new, more reliable bitch) topped the German reliability ratings 2 years ago.

This actually applies to diesel versions in Europe as well, where on average you need to cover more than 15,000Km/9,300 miles per year for it to pay off, yet most ppl buy it because it's the "in" thing or just snobbery.

why small cars? they are already good on the environment. If you make it on big cars/trucks you will see a far greater drop in emissions world wide.