Eberhard hints VW may be looking at small format cells for upcoming electric cars

We've know officially that Tesla Motors co-founder Martin Eberhard was working with Volkswagen since January of this year (unofficially, we heard it back in March of 2009). What's he been up to with VW since then? Well, based on a quote in Motor Trend yesterday, he might be getting Volkswagen to use small-format cells in its electric vehicle battery packs. MT writes:

Has he sold VW on consumer cells, like those used in the Lotus-bodied Tesla Roadster?
"They're coming around," Eberhard says.

Eberhard spends some of his time at VW's Electronics Research Laboratory (ERL) in Palo Alto, CA, where VW gave more details about its upcoming electric car offerings, the eGolf compact and the eUp! city car, the other day. We're still a long way away from the market debut of these vehicles, scheduled for 2013, but at least we know that VW is keeping its powertrain options open for now.

[Source: Motor Trend]