Since its introduction as a 2010 model, the S400 Hybrid has not had any styling changes or revisions to features offered.

A Different Luxury Hybrid Approach

The Mercedes S-Class is renowned for its powerful engines; from the S550’s 429 horsepower V8 and culminating with the S65 AMG featuring the AMG-tuned V12 that produces an outrageous 621 horsepower. But instead of adding electric power to boost the output of a V8, the decision was made to offer a hybrid that would appeal to a more discerning driver: one that seeks a more eco-conscious way of traveling in luxury.

Developed jointly with BMW, the S400’s hybrid system is a “mild” hybrid similar to Honda’s Integrated Motor Assist hybrid powertrain, meaning it cannot be driven on electrical power alone. The 275 horsepower V6 gasoline engine is similar to the 3.5 liter used in other Mercedes cars and SUVs, but this version has different cylinder heads and pistons and a modified camshaft. It also uses a more efficient combustion strategy known as the Atkinson cycle, a common hybrid approach. The downside of the Atkinson cycle is diminished engine torque, especially at low rpm.

That’s where the electric motor comes in – think of its as sort of a substitute for a turbocharger that instead of cramming more fuel in, effectively reduces fuel requirements, while still yielding more total power. The small, disc-shaped three-phase external-rotor AC motor fits in the torque converter housing between the engine and the specially adapted seven-speed automatic transmission. When called upon, it adds 118 pounds-feet of torque and 20 horsepower to the V6’s output to boost starting acceleration and improve passing performance. The combined system generates 295 horsepower and an impressive 284 pounds-feet of torque. The compact motor also functions as a starter and generator.

Energizing the motor is a 32-cell, 120-volt, 0.9 amp-hour, lithium-ion battery. About the size of a shoebox, the battery fits neatly in the rear right hand corner of the engine bay. Regenerative braking pushes electricity back into the battery.

Like most hybrids, the Mercedes S400 system incorporates a stop-start function. When the car stops at a light or in traffic, the engine shuts off, saving fuel. Lift off the brake pedal and the engine instantly revives, briskly accelerating courtesy of the electric motor. In total, the hybrid system works with the German precision you would expect.

In the U.S. hybrids are about fuel mileage, in Europe it’s about emissions. The S400 Hybrid has an EPA estimated fuel economy of 19 miles per gallon in the city and 25 on the highway, for an average of 21 mpg – a little more than a 20 percent improvement over the S550. As for emissions, it has an extremely low CO2 output of 186 grams per kilometer and receives a Super Ultra Low Emission Vehicle rating from the California Air Resources Board.

Big European Sedan Style

Luxury rivals Audi, BMW, Jaguar and Lexus offer standard and extended wheelbase sedan models. For U.S. buyers, the S-Class comes only in one version, and it’s long – slightly more than 17-feet long. A deft pen, however, stretches out a well-proportioned body to create a low and lengthy body.

The hood points downward and merges into a pronounced arrow-shaped grille and wing-like headlamps. A steep windshield meets the roof that gracefully curves rearward towards a shallower raked rear window. Prominent wheel arches defeat the look of a big slab-sided car. The culmination of the design is a stately sedan with a big dose of European style.

Inside, there’s small doubt that the Mercedes S-Class has the most refined and luxurious cabin in the car business – Bentley and Rolls Royce excluded. Automobile Magazine summed it up with two words, “Gorgeous interior.”

Quilted leather highlighted by Eucalyptus wood trim dominates a supremely quiet cabin, with hardly an ounce of plastic to be found. Fit-and-finish is impeccable, and switches have a ribbed texture that operate with a substantial mechanical feel.

An option to seriously consider is massaging front seats, a pampering feature that Mercedes has perfected. Settings range from slow and light to fast and vigorous. Skip the upgraded seats and you’ll find the standard ones still impressive: 16-way power-adjustable, ventilated and heated.

The S400 Hybrid is brimming with interior tech starting with a 15-speaker harmon/kardon audio system, Bluetooth, ipod/MP3 interface, 7.2-GB music register and a hard-drive navigation system with Zagat. Optional is a dual-view navigation screen that can show a DVD movie to the front seat passenger and the navigation screen to the driver. The only electronic quirk is the COMAND interface that makes simple processes like tuning the radio or adjusting climate controls complicated and frustrating.

Driving Manners

HybridCars.com drove the S400h on the roads of Southern Germany. Our drive loop took us from Stuttgart – the home of Mercedes Benz – to the town of Buel and back, a round trip of approximately 150 miles. The route was evenly comprised of high-speed driving on the Autobahn – where we ran at, ahem, triple digit speeds – as well as moderately paced rural roads, and narrow streets through smaller hamlets.

Mercedes-Benz alludes to the S400h as having the power of a V8, but that’s a stretch. The company’s own numbers show the hybrid reaching 60 mph in 7.2 seconds compared with the V8 S550 making it in 5.4. That’s not say the S400 is a slug. Performance may not be exhilarating but the car felt surprisingly sprightly and right at home on the high-speed Autobahn.

The S400 drives much smaller than it is. Cutting through the tight twisties of Germany’s Black Forest, the hybrid cornered flatly and with confidence. It is as nimble and agile as its gas-powered counterpart. Stability comes from Active Body Control, a suspension system that continually adapts its tuning to the current driving situation. Other high-tech advancements include a pre-collision system, adaptive high beam assist, lane keep assist, and radar-based cruise control.

Of course, we tracked fuel economy and achieved an impressive 29.3 miles per gallon on our 150 mile jaunt – danged good for a car that weighs nearly 5,000 pounds. With much stricter speed limits in the U.S., it’s reasonable to assume fuel efficiency results will be even better.

Economics

To state the obvious, the S400 Hybrid is expensive. The base MSRP of $91,850 can easily and quickly climb from there when piling on the options. But for that price, not only are buyers getting the Mercedes-Benz prestige factor, they are also getting the engineering that the German automaker has built its reputation on. And for giving up a bit – just a bit – of performance, they are getting in exchange an S550 with better fuel economy and saving $2,600. That’s rather compelling for uncompromising affluent buyers seeking a slightly greener ride.

Prices are manufacturer suggested retail price (MSRP) at time of publication and do not include destination charges, taxes or licensing.

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Based strictly on past U.S. sales numbers, Mercedes-Benz has not been serious about hybrid cars. Between its Mercedes S400 Hybrid sedan and ML450 Hybrid SUV, the company sold 1,21 hybrid units in 2010—representing 0.6% of the overall hybrid market. Yet, Dr. Christian Mohrdieck, Daimler’s director of fuel cell and battery-drive development, last week told HybridCars.com that Daimler, the maker of Mercedes-Benz vehicles, is making a big investment in hybrids. “In the future, we will have hybrid models in all our car lines,” Mohrdieck said. “This is one step to reduce emissions and increase fuel economy.”

According to Mohrdieck, there will be “bigger numbers” of hybrids coming out in Mercedes’s E-Class, C-Class, R-Class, and M-Class vehicles. He also said that consumers should expect diesel-hybrids and plug-in hybrids in the United States. An S-Class plug-in hybrid concept offering 20 miles of all-electric range was first shown at the 2009 Frankfurt motor show. “Plug-in hybrid is a very good concept for bigger cars, but you have to look at the right balance of battery size and engine size, in order to have the right performance and acceptable cost level,” Mohrdieck said.

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Dr. Christian Mohrdieck, director of fuel cell and battery drive development at Daimler.

Daimler’s apparent slow start on hybrids could be a matter of perception—when viewing the company’s hybrid production from a global perspective. Mohrdieck said that the overall take-rate of the S400—the number of hybrids sold compared to the same model with a conventional powertrain—is about 15 to 20 percent worldwide. “It’s 15 percent on average, and in some markets it goes up to 20 percent.” Mohrdieck said that “China is crazy about hybrids,” and has become a big market for all Mercedes vehicles, including hybrids.

Meanwhile in the United States, in 2010 Mercedes sold four times as many clean diesel vehicles as hybrids—tallying nearly 8,000 sales or nearly 10 percent of the U.S. clean diesel market.

Dr. Mohrdieck said that Daimler is investing meaningful budgets to battery-electric and fuel cars, but not nearly as much as on internal combustion and hybrid cars, “because they are already high volume products…There will be a lot of hybrids in the near future,” said Mohrdieck.

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Cher, the iconic actress, singer and all-around famous person known for her outspoken views on a litany of subjects, says that she’s not convinced driving a hybrid has much of an impact on the environment.

“I researched all the hybrid stuff and its pretty much all bulls**t,” Cher said, as reported by Fox News. “I was going to get a Mercedes diesel thing, but then thank God I found out there [are] no diesel places near us,” said the Oscar-winner, presumably referring to Mercedes’s clean diesel BlueTec Series, and an apparent shortage—confirmed by Jalopnik—of filling stations offering diesel in the Malibu area.

Her “Burlesque” co-star, critically-acclaimed actor Stanley Tucci, also had misgivings about green cars—saying that he would buy one, if only “the stuff that’s there actually worked, like the hybrids, which are questionable at best. There is this huge promotion and then you look at the gas mileage… it is not that different at all. It just makes people feel better.”

A Slightly More Convenient Truth

The celebrities’ apparent confusion about the environmental benefits of green cars may stem from a lack of high-end luxury hybrids on the market capable of delivering efficiency numbers as eye-popping as the Prius’s 50-mpg combined fuel economy rating. But on a more fundamental level, a common misunderstanding about how gas mileage translates to environmental benefits is the likely culprit in keeping the “Berlesque” stars in the dark about hybrids.

For example, the Mercedes lineup that Cher referenced in her remarks provides several fuel-efficient alternatives to some of its more popular models, like in the S-Class Series—whose most efficient gasoline variant, the S550 sedan, achieves a combined fuel economy rating of just 18 mpg. But compare the S550 to its slightly-cheaper though less-powerful hybrid cousin, the S400, and you’ll find that trading in your 5.5-liter, 382-horsepower V8 for a dual V6-electric powertrain boasting 87 fewer HP, only nets a 3-mpg improvement in combined fuel economy.

So why would a passive environmentalist like Cher—who also disclosed in the interview that she has recently switched her house over to “those curly bulbs” in an effort to go green—ever sacrifice the luxury of being able to theoretically reach Autobahn speeds on the LA freeway, for a lousy 3 mpg?

A closer inspection reveals that the actual environmental benefits of buying the hybrid S400 are far greater than they might seem. According to the California Air Resources Board, the S400′s rather paltry 16 percent gain in combined fuel economy actually translates to a 56 percent decrease in greenhouse gas emissions, and a 76 percent cut in smog. (And at $3,700 less, the sticker price savings alone are enough to cover nearly a year’s worth of botox treatments.)

The fact that not everyone has yet caught on to subtleties of green car efficiency benefits should come as little surprise to those who follow the technologies closely and have occasional conversations about them with the non-initiated. Still, if Cher and Mr. Tucci were to check out CARB’s vehicle comparison website, they might find California’s simplified emission and smog ratings useful in searching for a cleaner vehicle that both “isn’t bulls**t,” and “actually works.”

LincVolt Blues

Just days after returning from delivering a keynote speech at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Neil Young lost his one-of-a-kind classic plug-in hybrid conversion—which he calls the “LincVolt”—to a fire in his San Francisco warehouse. The converted 1959 Lincoln Continental convertible weighed in at a whopping 6,200 lbs, but had a claimed all-electric range of 50 miles—with a biodiesel-powered range extender providing an additional 400 miles of plug-to-pump freedom.

But today comes word that the LincVolt wasn’t so much a victim of that warehouse fire, but rather its perpetrator. The singer said in a statement that an error in “an untested part of the charging system” is considered to be the most likely culprit:

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So while the project may be on hold for now, it looks as though Young will go on to rebuild and hopefully continue to take the car out on the road to a showcase the potential of green auto engineering. For more information about the timelessly-cool though temporarily-deceased LincVolt, check out its website or watch Young’s recent keynote address at SEMA.

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Mercedes S400 hybrid.

The new federal fuel efficiency rules announced last week by the Environmental Protection Agency were hailed as a major success by the Obama administration and embraced by carmakers. But many car dealers—the folks closest to the consumer, and the point of sale—are still dragging their feet on hybrids and other fuel-efficient options.

“With tight family budgets and a shaky job outlook, consumers want to maximize their transportation dollars, not pay more for redundant rules and an unnecessary bureaucracy,” said Ed Tonkin, chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association, in an official statement. “Under these new mandates, the price of new cars and light trucks will rise significantly, meaning fewer Americans will be able to buy the new vehicles of their choice.”

EPA and ROI

Based on the new rules, the average fuel economy for cars is estimated to be 37.8 mpg by 2016, while light trucks are expected to average 28.8 mpg. Automakers are expected to produce all kinds of hybrids in greater numbers to meet the targets—and will get bonus credits for building electric cars, plug-in hybrids and hydrogen fuel-cell models.

The cost of developing the more fuel-efficient fleet is pegged at $52 billion. Obama administration officials said the rules would raise the average price of a new vehicle by less than $1,000 in the 2016 model year and that many consumers would earn back the cost in fuel savings over three years.

For automakers, the new rules are an acceptable compromise that prevents California and other states from establishing even more stringent requirements. The new targets, which cover 2012 – 2016, help buy time for carmakers, which are now fighting the ability for California from drafting rules for 2017 and beyond. “America needs a road map to reduced dependence on foreign oil and greenhouse gases, and only the federal government can play this role,” said Dave McCurdy, president and CEO of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.

Good for Europeans, But We’re Different

Dealers are not only at-odds with government officials, but with the car companies that provide the vehicles they sell. In fact, some Mercedes-Benz dealers are up in arms about the decision by Daimler executives to potentially make the flagship S-class a hybrid-only lineup. The dealers told Automotive News that the S-class switch to full hybrids—meaning no models offered with only internal combustion engines—could happen in Europe in 2013 and in the US by 2014. They believe it will undermine the perception of the Mercedes brand.

Tommy Baker, chairman of the Mercedes-Benz dealer board and a Charleston, SC, Mercedes dealer, said, “The most important thing in the American market—regardless of hybrid, lithium or electric cars—is that we Americans are different than any market and we are going to want those gasoline engines.” Baker said the goal of S-Class drivers is “not gas mileage.”

The Mercedes S400 Hybrid has been on the market since August 2009. US dealers said they wouldn’t be able to sell hybrid versions of the S550 V-8 model and S600 V-12 models, and the costly S63 AMG and S65 AMG. Yet, the luxury market is filling up with new hybrid models. Last year 10 percent of all Lexus models sold in the United States were hybrids.

Not all dealers are reluctant. Responding to last week’s new fuel rules, Adam Lee, President of Maine-based Lee Auto Malls, which consists of 20 dealerships selling domestic and foreign cars, said, “Today is a victory for American consumers and the auto industry.” Lee believes that higher fuel efficiency standards will help the US economy—by putting more US-built high mpg cars into dealerships. “Every day customers walk into my stores asking for the same thing—cars that go farther on a dollar.”

Lee sees higher mpg as the future. “My customers are already asking, when will we see 50 miles per gallon?”

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The $89,000 Mercedes S400 mild hybrid began arriving in US showrooms in August. The S400 hybrid is the lowest-price model in the S-class range—and yesterday was awarded a federal tax credit of $1,150 awarded this week. At the same time, the S400’s mileage rating of 19 mpg in the city and 26 on the highway is 30 percent more fuel efficient than the more expensive S550. Efficiency gains come from the 120-volt battery pack, which is neatly packaged in the engine compartment—unlike other hybrids that use trunk space for the batteries.

The tradeoff of efficiency for horsepower reflects a shift in the luxury market. The Mercedes S550 delivers 382 horsepower versus the S400’s 275 hp. “I am convinced that many customers continue to want a comfortable and spacious car. They would not like to be called callous by their neighbor because the fuel consumption is astronomic,” Zetsche said in an interview with Automotive News. “We have to provide fun without pain by being able to offer these kinds of attributes in a vehicle and with lower fuel consumption.”

Mercedes-Benz will trumpet the S400 hybrid in a green ad campaign beginning in early 2010. Mercedes expects the S400 hybrid to account for 10 percent of S-class sales—which will add up to about 2,000 sales in a year.

Mercedes Plug-ins On the Way

More Mercedes hybrids are headed into production. A Mercedes M-class hybrid SUV, the ML450 Hybrid, with an expected fuel economy of 21/24, is scheduled to arrive by the end of this year, and hybrid gas-electric versions of the C and E classes are expected in the next year or two. When the S class is redesigned in 2012, Mercedes will launch the S500 plug-in hybrid with close to 20 miles of all-electric range, thanks to a 10 kilowatt-hour lithium battery pack.

Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Mercedes, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Smart plant in Hambach, France. They announced expanded production of the all-electric Smart ForTwo. The French government is investing in the project.

Mercedes is not going to stop with a plug-in hybrid. The company wants a pure electric car and fuel cell vehicle on the market in the next few years. Zetsche views all of these electric-drive technologies as a continuum. “It starts with the stop-start unit, goes from a mild hybrid to a full hybrid, and then you come to a standard where it flip-flops—electric is the main power and combustion is an add-on,” said Zetsche. “It ends with electric, be it fuel cell or battery electric.”

Daimler today announced that it selected Hambach, France, as the location for future mass production of the electric version of its Smart ForTwo. “The smart ForTwo Electric Drive proves that emission-free driving in an urban environment is already feasible today,” Zetsche said. Initial production of 1,000 vehicles will begin this year—for test evaluation in Europe and the US—with “series” production of the Smart ForTwo Electric Drive (ED) expanding in 2012.

Zetsche believes that it’s too risky to bet on any single technology. “This will be a gradual changeover from one technology to the other. In between, there will be hybrids and plug-in hybrids for quite some time.”

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It’s not enough that Mercedes-Benz announced that it might make the next generation of its S-Class sedans all hybrid. That would mark the first time that an entire model line is converted to gas-electric technology. The S-Class mild hybrid, which is already on sale in Europe and goes on sale later this year in the US, is equipped with a 3.5-liter gasoline engine and electric motor powered by lithium ion batteries. (Mercedes’s use of lithium ion batteries in a mild hybrid is used to reduce size, not to increase power or electric drive.)

In the new reality, converting an entire line to hybrid is not enough to demonstrate a green commitment—so Mercedes will unveil the Vision S500 Plug-in Hybrid. (BMW also uses the word “vision” in the name of its new plug-in hybrid.) The S500 Plug-in will provide 18 miles of electric-only driving before the gas engine kicks in. Mercedes also will present the E-Cell Plus electric car concept that it showed in Detroit in January—but this time, the small car takes on a turbocharged, 1-liter, three-cylinder engine, to turn it into a plug-in hybrid with 60 or so miles of all-electric range. The two Mercedes plug-in cars—as well as plug-in hybrids and electric cars from other European carmakers—are pure auto show spectacle at this stage. But the creation and display of plug-in concept cars represents a shift of direction that could eventually yield production vehicles.

European Plug-in Car Debuts in Frankfurt

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BMW Vision EfficientDynamics (left), Mercedes E-Cell Plus Plug-in Hybrid (top right), and Peugeot iON (bottom right).

• Audi will showcase an electric R8 concept sports car with a range of about 100 miles
• BMW will unveil the Vision EfficientDynamics, a plug-in diesel-electric supercar concept.
• Volkswagen will display an electric version of its Up minicar, scheduled to go on sale after gasoline- and diesel-powered versions of the car are launched in 2011.
• Peugeot’s stand will showcase the iOn electric minicar. Peugeot hopes to annually sell 25,000 units of the small car, based on Mitsubishi i-MiEV.
• Renault-Nissan will show an entire line of electric vehicles, called Renault Zero Emission. Its Nissan Leaf will begin to roll out in the US late next year.

Leading or Following

The introduction of European plug-in concept cars at the Frankfurt Auto Show comes at a time when the German government is stepping up its commitment to grid-connected vehicles. After pledging last month to spend $700 million on electric car infrastructure to help the country put 1 million electric cars on German roads by 2020, the government set up a new government agency yesterday to coordinate electric car research and development.

Forbes called the government step “an electric car PR stunt.” Gregor Claussen, an analyst with Commerzbank, told Forbes, “At a first glance this sounds rather like a nice PR story. But more will have to follow. Without the help and the right framework from the politics, it will not work.” Analysts also believe the push 1 million electric cars will be too small to be noticed.

After the Frankfurt Auto Show closes, German carmakers will either move forward on production of new plug-in hybrids and electric cars—disregarding the market as too small—or face the prospect of having foreign competition slowly coming into its own turf to sell plug-in vehicles. California-based luxury electric carmaker Tesla opens a new retail store in Munich today.

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Its competition in the nascent luxury green vehicle market will be the $109,000 two-seat all-electric Tesla Roadster; the $87,000 four-door Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid (not yet out); and the $104,000 Lexus LS 600h L—a V8 hybrid averaging 21 miles to the gallon. Lexus annually sells about 1,000 units of the LS 600h L.

We achieved 29.3 miles per gallon in the Mercedes S400 Hybrid, over a 150-mile mixed driving course though Southern Germany.

Benz estimates fuel economy for the S400 will be 23 in the city and 33 on the highway. EPA numbers are not yet official, but HybridCars.com did our own mileage test of this big luxury sedan on the roads of Southern Germany. Our drive loop took us from Stuttgart—the home of Mercedes Benz—to the town of Buel and back, a round trip of approximately 150 miles. The route was evenly comprised of high-speed driving on the Autobahn—where we ran at, ahem, greater than 100 mph—as well as moderately paced rural roads, and narrow streets through smaller hamlets. We achieved an impressive 29.3 miles per gallon—not bad for a car that weighs almost 5,000 pounds. (By the way, the V6 of the S400 is plenty strong for the Autobahn.)

With much stricter speed limits in the US, it’s reasonable that fuel economy results will be even better. But saving fuel and money is not the first concern for buyers of this car. The buyer of the S400 hybrid is probably just as interested in pairing the Mercedes three-pointed star emblem with a hybrid badge, to demonstrate a combined interest in luxury, refinement, and green status. Mercedes claims that the S400 is the “CO2 champion in the luxury class,” emitting a relatively low 186 grams of carbon per kilometer.

As the hybrid version of the Benz flagship S-Class sedan, the S400 is powered by a mild hybrid system with a 3.5-liter V6 gas engine. The hybrid system allows Mercedes to maintain its high-power profile, while using a V6 instead of a V8 or V12. The electric-gas combo provides a total output of 295 horsepower, channeled through a seven-speed automatic transmission. Benz is particularly proud of what it refers to as “compact” batter technology. Engineers made this hybrid system as well-packaged and light as possible. (Mercedes-Benz was able to fit the entire pack into the same space, at the right-hand base of the windshield, that previously housed the car’s standard lead-acid 12-Volt starter battery.) The S400 weighs only about 120 pounds more than the standard S-Class.

Driving Manners

The S400 drives much smaller than it is. Cutting through the tight twisties of Germany’s Black Forest, this hybrid cornered flatly and with confidence. It is as nimble and agile as its gas-powered counterpart. Stability comes from Active Body Control, an active suspension that continually adapts the suspension tuning to the current driving situation. The S400 features Torque Vectoring Brake, as well as Crosswind Stabilization, both enhancing the sure-footedness of the car. Other high-tech advancements include a pre-collision system, adaptive high beam assist, lane keep assist, and radar-based cruise control.

The cabin of the car is as plush as the standard S-Class. It shares all the same luxury features including a new split-view driver interface, which allows the front passenger to watch a movie without distracting the driver. There’s also a “Night View Assist” feature that detects pedestrians on the road ahead. The only interior difference is the S400’s hybrid gauge showing the flow of power between engine, battery, and regenerative braking.

The S400 shares the look of the S-Class. Signs of its recent facelift include a more aero grille, revised LED lighting at the front and back, and new mirrors, tailpipes, and wheels.
The Mercedes Benz S400 hybrid is a luxurious, fuel-efficient saloon with lots of driving appeal. With its steep purchase price, it’s obviously not for everyone—but it is one more option for uncompromising affluent buyers seeking a slightly greener ride.

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News of the lawsuit, reported in the Detroit Free Press, follows revelations earlier this year that Cobasys, a supplier of nickel metal hydride batteries, provided faulty hybrid batteries to General Motors. In December 2007, General Motors voluntarily recalled 9,000 hybrid vehicles due to an internal leak in the battery pack that caused the hybrid system to fail. The vehicle could still be driven, although without the benefits of the hybrid system. GM’s hybrid sales have been negatively impacted by limited battery supply.

The availability of reliable hybrid battery systems is seen as the key to expanding global hybrid production. Nearly every major automaker is heavily investing in hybrid battery production, and in strategic partnerships with battery suppliers. The next generation of high-mpg hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles will also depend on automakers’ supply of batteries.

In an exclusive interview with HybridCars.com, a Cobasys executive—who asked not to be named—responded to GM statements and press reports, saying, “A lot of it is not correct,” but declined to elaborate further.

Cobasys Blamed for Lack of American Hybrids

In turn, a former employee of Cobasys, who also chose to remain anonymous, wrote to HybridCars.com, placing the blame on the Cobasys management team. In an email, he wrote that the contract between Cobasys and the hybrid partnership between GM, Daimler, and BMW—which locks the partners into using Cobasys batteries for its current mild hybrids—is “the largest stumbling block in getting this product to market, and hopefully will not sour the North American market on American hybrids.” The inside source said that the automakers in the partnership have almost completely taken over responsibility to redesign the 880/800 battery. GM is serving as the lead in the effort. He added, “Now our American ingenuity and capabilities are being called into question by our foreign partners.”

The former employee wrote that the few engineers and scientists with the skills to resolve Cobasys’s problems had “been forced out or fired, primarily because they realized the difficulties ahead and had the misfortune to voice it to management who was blinded by a nice facility and pretty brochures.”

He pointed to these problems as the reason why Mercedes-Benz decided to use a lithium ion battery, from Johnson Controls-Saft and Continental AG, for the company’s planned Mercedes S400 luxury sedan hybrid in 2009 or 2010. “Had the Cobasys system worked, and had they had confidence in Cobasys, they would have used them.”

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The use of lithium ion batteries—which can be smaller, lighter, store more energy, and deliver more power—is considered the holy grail of on-board energy storage for vehicles.

Mercedes-Benz plans to use the lithium ion batteries in the S 400 BlueHYBRID, which is powered by a 299 horsepower engine, that could offer fuel economy of 30 miles to the gallon. Daimler said this would make it “the world’s most economical luxury sedan, unrivaled by any gasoline, diesel, or hybrid drive system offered by any competitor.” Company statements did not specify if the S-Class hybrid would be introduced in Europe or the United States.

Mercedes is also promising a diesel version of the same hybrid vehicle by 2010.

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