Review Car

A New World Record: A Consumer-Level Electrical Car Runs for 600 km Without Recharging

With an average speed of 130 kilometers per hour, space for four people, power steering, air bags, radio, air conditioning and heating, it is a vehicle that is entirely suitable for our daily use. “From the city of Munich, a car powered only by lithium battery had reached Berlin without any problems,” according to project managers. The car is essentially the electric version of Audi A2, which made the trip with an average speed of 90 miles per hour and reached the German capital with 18 percent of battery power remaining.

The proposed test has been carried out by the DBM Berlin, supported by the German Ministry of Economy, which aims to encourage the use of similar vehicles in 2011. The German government hoped that by 2015, typical electric-powered vehicles can travel for at least 300 kilometers without refueling.

All over Germany, there are currently 2,800 electric-powered cars and 2,500 recharging points. According to government plans, by 2020 it is planned that a million electric cars are running on roads and highways of Germany, which can help to slow down climate change with the reduction in greenhouse emission.

It was not the first endurance test performed in the world, a Japanese car reached 1000 kilometers without refueling, but the car used was actually a technology demonstrator.

The German finance minister, Rainer Brüderle, has described the experiment as “a breakthrough in the automotive industry” and expressed his confidence that the car that was developed in Berlin can become a big hit. The managing director of the company, Thomas Mecke, announced that “research phase have already been completed and now it is time to sell the product”.

The success in achieving the world record is the result of intensive research and the innovation of an upstart called DBM. Despite support for the project, the minister has ruled out a subsidy of thousands of euros to promote the new vehicle, as this “would distort the competition” and said that “electric cars of today have a good chance of being successful in the marketplace.”

Also, other German companies such as BMW, have also opted to use this technology, since the summer of 2009, 600 units of Electrics Mini-E have entered the quality-control stage. The head of BMW Berlin, Nicole Bruning, said that tests have shown that electric vehicles can become a part of our normal life sooner than expected.