(July 6, 2011) STUTTGART — Following last year's successful debut, Daimler AG is competing in the annual Silvretta electric car rally in Austria this week with seven electric cars of the Mercedes-Benz and smart brands.

At the start for the second time are the smart fortwo electric drive and the B-Class F-CELL. A first-time participant this year is the battery-electric A-Class E-CELL. The highlight of the rally is again the highly efficient super sports car SLS AMG E-CELL, whose market launch is scheduled for 2013.

Last year, an Audi e-tron won the rally.

Speed is not of the essence in the three-day rally that leads through the Vorarlberg mountain landscape, but regularity and skill. Covering a distance of almost 300 kilometers (186 miles) and a difference in altitude of 5500 meters, the electric car rally is almost twice as long as the premiere in 2010 and, as a comparison of the courses shows, far more demanding.

Gradients of up to 14 percent must be negotiated with precision. The driver teams are put through various trials in which hundredths of seconds count in the scoring. But they will be rewarded with views of the picturesque Montafon mountains.

The rally takes the locally emission-free, noiseless electric cars through the Austrian provinces Vorarlberg and Tyrol.