Germany kicks off plan to create an electric car

BERLIN – Forget that they’re cramped, have a limited driving range and outstrip the average consumer’s pocketbook. The race is on to create a viable electric car.

Germany – home to brands including Volkswagen, Porsche and BMW – became the latest country to fast-track development of electric cars, the government approving a plan Wednesday that aims to put 1 million of them on the road by 2020.

The goal is ambitious. Of the 41 million cars in the country, only 1,452 are electric, and Germany is entering an increasingly congested field.

This month alone, Nissan Motor Co. in Japan unveiled the Leaf, an electric car scheduled to go into mass production for a global market in 2012. General Motors touted triple-digit mileage figures for its rechargeable Chevrolet Volt. And President Barack Obama committed $2.4 billion in federal grants to develop next-generation electric vehicles and batteries in the U.S.

To help bring Germany up to speed, the government plans to spend some $705 million on the plan over the next three years – including $164 million to establish eight test regions examining how the cars could best be introduced.

It plans to put $242 million into battery research, making domestic production a priority and ensuring that German experts are trained in the technology.

“It is important that we couple a decreasing dependency on oil imports with not suddenly becoming dependent on battery imports,” Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said.

The massive, sensitive, costly and fast-depleting batteries that take the place of international combustion engines and gasoline are expensive to produce, and countries like South Korea and Japan are far ahead in research and development.

Electric cars are also more limited than their gas-guzzling cousins, running 40 and 120 miles on a charge, while taking anywhere from two to seven hours to fully recharge.

Guttenberg said a market introduction plan would be examined, and financing would be a question for the government that emerges from Germany’s Sept. 27 election.

Germany’s Volkswagen AG, Europe’s biggest automaker, has said it hopes to introduce its first electric cars on the market in 2013. Daimler AG, which has been testing an electric version of its two-seater Smart, is working with California-based electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc. on developing better battery and electric drive systems.

Tesla has earned praise for its low-slung Roadster, a $109,000 two-seat sports car that can get more than 200 miles on a single charge.

In the U.S., General Motors Co. plans to offer the Volt – a hybrid electric car – next year at a cost of about $40,000. Ford Motor Co. will also offer an all-electric commercial van in 2010 and plans to have three other electric vehicles available in the U.S. by 2012.

Elsewhere, rival Mitsubishi Motors Corp. launched an electric vehicle in June, the $48,300 i-MiEV, and other companies have plans in the works.