Daimler plans to invest $11 billion in electronic vehicles

Luxury automaker Daimler is preparing to invest approximately 10 billion euros ($11 billion) in developing electrical automobiles, its research and development head informed a German daily.

German companies are investing greatly in electrical vehicles, once avoided for their high cost and limited operating range and now gaining from latest advances in battery technology and a backlash versus diesel fumes.

Technological advances to boost the reach of an electrical vehicle by up to 50% are now stimulating major financial investments by Volkswagen, Daimler and providers such as Bosch and Continental.

“By 2025 we wish to establish 10 electrical cars based upon the same architecture,” Thomas Weber informed Stuttgarter Zeitung’s Saturday edition.

“For this push we want to invest as much as 10 billion euros,” he told, adding 3 of the models will be Smart top quality cars and that thanks to larger batteries they will have the ability to increase their travelling range up to 700 kilometers.

In September, an individual familiar with Daimler’s strategies told that the automaker plans to present a minimum of six electrical vehicle models as part of its push to take on Tesla and Audi.

Independently, Daimler stated that it will continue to offer diesel-powered vehicles in the United States, in contrast to German competing Volkswagen.

“There is currently no decision nor are there considerations to withdraw diesel from the United States”, a business representative said, rejecting a report from weekly publication Der Spiegel, which had stated the automaker was thinking about stopping its sales of such automobiles in the U.S. next year.