Other renewables

Audi A2 electric car drove 600 km from Munich in southern Germany to Berlin without recharging

An Audi A2 electric car reached Berlin on Tuesday after running about 600 km from Munich with one charge, setting a new journey record for electric car.

German Economic Minister Rainer Bruederle welcomed this electric car at the courtyard of the Economy Ministry, praising it a "world record."

Bruederle said the car is a "technological leap forward," as electric cars are usually to be recharged after running 60 or 70 km.

The electric vehicle was developed by electric car firm Lekker Energie and energy storage company DBM Energy on a basis of Audi A2.

The driver drove the electric car with lithium ion batteries at a recommended speed of 130 km per hour and the car shared many characters with a normal car, like power steering, airbags, air-conditioning and heated seats, said by the company representative.

The electric car has super light lithium metal-polymer batteries, which are not just lighter than conventional solutions but are more energy efficient and powerful than ordinary batteries, the representative said

Its 27 year old driver Mirko Hannemann even played a joke with journalists after 7-hour driving, saying "any journalist who wants to charge their iPhones can use our left electricity."

In May, the German government launched its National Electric Mobility Platform (NEMP) to support the development of electric vehicles, aiming to realize one million electric cars on German road by 2020.

In July, German energy Giant RWE group said it planed to install around 400 charging stations in Germany’s densely populated Ruhr region till the end of this year.

German car manufactures like BMW, Volkswagen have also signaled that they planed to put their first electrical vehicles onto market in 2013.

However, compared with its Japanese rivals, Germany has still been left behind on electric cars at present and needs efforts to catch up.

Last week, Japan’s Nissan said it would begin to sell its all-electric car Leaf, which can run 160 km per charge in city driving, in Japan and the U.S. at the end of 2010. In 2011, the sale of Leaf will expand to Europe.

www.lekker-energie.de/

www.dbm-energy.com/