Tesla, Tesla, Tesla – you are not in Ola Källenius. But you can imagine how the supposedly undercooled Swede at the head of Daimler’s blood boils when he hears the praises of Elon Musk and his start-up, which has grown into the sheer immeasurable. But at some point it will be enough, and at some point it will be now. After all, Mercedes-Benz prides itself on the invention of the automobile and therefore now wants to regain sovereignty over the interpretation of its future. What the Swabians are showing as the Vision EQXX on the occasion of the electronics trade fair CES in Las Vegas should be nothing less than the reinvention of the car for Generation E. “The Vision EQXX shows how we imagine the future of the electric car,” says the Daimler- Boss and makes the study the most efficient Mercedes of all time.
The aim is to redefine boundaries and remove the word “range anxiety” from everyday language thanks to a 1000-kilometer route. “We’re talking about a real drive on a European motorway, not about cycles on the test bench,” says Klaus Millerferli, who is responsible for the prototype. In addition, the EQXX does not need a huge battery, like the competitors Nio or Lucid for their four-digit test bench values, and also no crawler gear. It drives at cruising speed and draws power from a battery that fits in a small car. “We’re raising efficiency to a new level,” says Millerferli. Where the EQS is the flagship of a standard consumption of up to 21.8 kWh, the project manager for the EQXX is predicting less than 10 kWh.
There is a lot of near-series technology in the EQXX
There have already been some groundbreaking visions from Stuttgart. But the EQXX is different. In contrast to the wheeled spaceship F015, for example, it is not a messenger from a distant future, but comparatively present. Even if the showpiece will probably never go into series production because of its limited everyday shape with entry at ants knee height, it contains a lot of near-series technology with which Mercedes wants to teach future models how to save. It should start with the MMA family, which will include the next generation EQA and EQC. “The technology program behind the EQXX will redefine and enable future models and vehicle functions from Mercedes-Benz,” says Development Board Member Markus Schäfer.
Mercedes presents the EQXX
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It’s enough
Even the design is anything but completely detached, although it accounts for the lion’s share of long-distance suitability. Around 60 percent of the resistance that has to be overcome when driving belongs to the aerodynamics discipline. That is why Mercedes has smoothed the shape right down to the lettering on the tires, capped the wheels, retracted the rear track and artfully lengthened the rear, as permitted by law, good taste and the extendable floor spoiler. A drag coefficient of 0.18 is given in the data sheet. It helps that the car hardly needs any cooling. Because of its efficiency, a new type of cooling plate on the underbody is usually sufficient. Only when driving at full speed or on a mountain pass does a blind let air into the bow.
The battery block is smaller and lighter than in the EQS
The performance is, however, rather modest. The drive developed with the Formula 1 and Formula E teams is designed for up to 200 hp and 140 km / h. It is fed by a battery that, at around 100 kWh, has roughly the same capacity as in the EQS. Still equipped with lithium ions, but with improved chemistry and a new arrangement in carbon instead of aluminum, the battery block is only half the size and a third lighter. It therefore fits into the EQA model. Hardly by chance, the wheelbase of the nearly five-meter-long study is the 2.80 meters of the compact class, the weight of 1750 kilograms even less.
The Vision EQXX is primarily about efficiency. But it is full of other pioneering technology that should show what Mercedes can do and what it is up to. The researchers cultivate sustainable natural materials for the showpiece in the laboratory, individual components grow as bionic and therefore particularly light and yet stable structures such as skeletons in the computer, and of course the infotainment is the “next level”. Not only because the screen spans across the entire cockpit and the graphics make the recently celebrated hyperscreen from the EQS look like a tube television. But also because chips and displays are particularly economical and because they get their electricity from a solar cell on the roof instead of the battery.
Although the premiere at CES is only digital, the EQXX has what it takes to become a new star and again gives Mercedes-Benz a voice in the choir of electric innovators. But even if the Swabians have made themselves heard again, they do not want to leave it to words – this is also where Mercedes differs from Tesla & Co. The study gets street legal. As early as the spring, the EQXX should prove on a long-distance journey that it really is enough.
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