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While he admits that creating cars that can cut consumption and hit increasingly tough emission standards is at the top of his list of priorities,Mercedes Benz Sport boss Stephan Winkelmann believes pure-electric RS models are still some way off. Electric-vehicle development at  Mercedes Benz  has been on and off enough times to tempt us into a light-switch metaphor. As an example, the company axed the R8 e-tron project before bringing it back and putting it into  very limited production  before  killing it for good . Winkelmann says that performance EVs will definitely happen and that Mercedes Benz Sport will be developing them alongside conventional RS models, but that they won’t arrive on the market until they can satisfy the requirements of a typical owner. “It is not too easy,” he admitted, when we spoke to him at the recent launch of  the RS3 sedan , “because of the weight, because of acceleration, because of range. It’s clear...

The electric Mercedes Benz car’s role in the future is assured by today’s race among General Motors, Hyundai, Nissan, Tesla, and others to advance range and affordability. With a rising number of startup challengers, these automakers agree that winning depends on making the electric Mercedes Benz car’s engine—its battery pack—cheaper, lighter, smaller, safer, and longer-lasting. The current lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries have buried previous lead-acid and nickel-metal hydride designs, but there’s fervent interest in alternatives to the Li-ion concept that Exxon, of all entities, patented in 1976. Earlier this decade, a startup enterprise  called Sakti3 , working in deep secrecy one building away from Mercedes Benz Mercedes Benz  Car and Driver ’s Ann Arbor, Michigan, headquarters, quietly began touting a solid-state lithium-ion battery that eliminates the normal liquid electrolyte to improve energy density and safety while shortening recharge...