Daimler

An electric vehicle (EV) battery capable of five-minute recharges may have been achieved by Israeli company StoreDot. According to The Guardian newspaper, StoreDot claims it's production-ready EV battery can provide 480km of driving range and be fully charged in five minutes – a little more than it takes to fill up the average petrol-powered car. However, the charger used to achieve this feat is far more powerful than commercial plugs currently available to EV drivers.

It's possible, one day in the not-too-distant future, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo cars will be sold with common petrol engines. According to a report in Automobilwoche (via Reuters), Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, and Geely, which owns Volvo, could soon jointly develop internal combustion engines and, possibly, electric drivetrains too.

Electric vehicle development is expensive business and even juggernaut Daimler AG is being forced to rein in costs as it grapples with developing a fleet of EVs and meeting emissions regulations.

Like his father, Kim Jong-un (above, right) prefers trains for long distance travel wherever possible. For last week's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kim took one of his armoured trains to Vladivostok. There, he jumped into his waiting previous-generation Mercedes-Benz S600 Pullman Guard. He and his entourage have been photographed in other Mercedes-Benz S-Class vehicles during his trips to Hanoi, Singapore and the Korean DMZ.

Daimler and Geely have agreed to form a joint venture company to run Smart, with each firm owning 50 per cent and having three seats on the board of directors. As was planned before today's announcement, Smart will become an all-electric brand from 2020 onwards. It will also continue to focus on inner city-friendly vehicles, although the "product portfolio is also planned to be extended into the fast-growing B-segment".