Tesla to Supply Batteries for Smart EV

Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced today at the 2009 Detroit auto show that the company will supply the batteries for the forthcoming Smart electric vehicle. Musk had just gotten the go-ahead from Smart parent company and Tesla partner Daimler this morning to make the announcement at the press conference this afternoon — the last auto manufacturer’s press conference of the show.

Musk said Daimler felt Tesla had the best engineering and technology, and so chose the small Silicon Valley electric car maker to supply the batteries for its Smart microcar. The Smart EV will use the same batteries as the Tesla Roadster, but in a smaller pack.

Musk also mentioned that his goal is to bring EVs to the masses, something that could be done through this partnership with Daimler. While the technology is expensive, it goes into expensive cars like the Tesla Roadster (which sells for upwards of $100k and is sold out through November 2009). By working with a large car maker to build EVs in volume, Musk hopes to lower the costs and partner with Daimler to build tens of thousands of cars, instead of the 1500 Roadsters Tesla hopes to build this year.

Tesla likes this partnership model so much that Musk says it’s looking for more deals of the same kind. “The notion of Silicon Valley versus Detroit is completely untrue,” he said.