Berlin  - A select group of Berlin motorists are to obtain subsidized electric cars as part of an experiment launched Friday by Daimler and a leading German electricity company, RWE.

The auto company is to supply 100 cars powered by lithium-ion batteries. The cars will mostly be from its Smart micro-car marque and will have a range of about 100 kilometres from a single charge.

They cannot be recharged from an ordinary power socket. RWE is to set up 500 special charging sites (supply points) at owners' homes, workplaces and in car parks and shopping centres. Owners will be automatically billed for recharging, similar to the way they pay mobile phone bills.

The Berlin scheme is similar to one that has been running for a couple of years in the British capital London.

At the launch of the project, dubbed E-Mobility Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is a physicist, was gently critical, saying, "One hundred cars is not that many for 500 supply points." But she also forecast that electric cars "will prevail sooner than people think."

Other critics noted that it will take six hours connected to the electricity network to fully recharge a lithium-ion car battery, though two hours is enough to achieve two thirds of a recharge.

The cars cannot make long out-of-town journeys because of their limited range. The scheme is receiving government and corporate subsidies, so the number of cars and supply points is limited by the budget. (dpa)