Mike wrote about this back in October last year. The news was that an electric Audi A2 retrofitted by DBM Energy drove 372 miles (595 km) on a single charge, without any range extender or any other trick, only equipped with a battery that’s both lighter and cheaper than anything on the market right now.
After the news broke, DBM’s warehouse caught fire (conspiration theorists pay attention to this one). The fire didn’t affect the actual A2 used in testing, but another one.
They say that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger – DBM Energy submitted their claims and prototype to German government officials who tested a 68 kWh lithium-metal-polymer battery pack and found out it could carry a car as far as 284 miles (454 kilometers) on one charge.
The initial battery used in testing the A2 was larger, having 98 kWh, but nevertheless this one proved it could beat any Leaf or Tesla Roadster to date. The battery had been named KOLIBRI, and DBM says it has a 10 years life time, or can resist to as many as 5,000 charging cycles.
The fact that puzzles a lot of people including Chris from gas2.0, and myself is that DBM claims their battery will only cost between $1,100 and $1,400. Nowadays’ batteries cost way more, and have way less autonomy, so if DBM proved this one it would change everything in the EV world and would make battery-powered cars much more accessible. I virtually see no reason why electric cars shouldn’t get boosted ahead of ICE-powered ones, if that happened.
Time will tell, but as far as I know, the Germans aren’t usually fooling around with false claims, and DBM Energy GmbH is German. Oh, one more thing… charging time: 6 minutes. Chew that.
