"We have been holding talks for some time with different companies that could become another partner in our joint enterprise" with the industrial group Evonik, Daimler research director Thomas Weber told the business daily Handelsblatt.

Daimler, maker of Mercedes-Benz autos, said in December that it would work with Evonik to develop lithium-ion batteries, currently considered the most suited to electric automobiles.

The German car maker has increased its focus on environmentally-friendly cars, offsetting its line of powerful autos that pollute more than small ones.

Daimler plans to mass produce electric or hybrid fuel-electric cars by 2012.

Among the groups mooted to join Daimler and Evonik in their venture are the German parts makers Continental and Bosch, the US group Tesla, and the Japanese companies Toshiba or Mitsubishi-Juasa.

Several automakers are in the race to develop electric or hybrid cars, often joining forces with a power company or auto parts maker to reach that goal.

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U.S. and Japanese physicists say they have demonstrated proof of principle of the existence of a 'spin battery' that's about the diameter of a human hair.