Mercedes-Benz shows us true EV range with the Vision EQXX, a concept vehicle that displays what an electric driving future looks like.
As you would expect from this brand, the car has an amazing design that brings advanced engineering to the market. You’ll find power, efficiency, and range qualities in a compact package that makes this car extremely attractive. It doesn’t hurt that this is a Merc, which comes with its own level of upscale details, qualities, and impressive features. Could you see yourself driving an electric luxury car in the future?
A Foundational Car Shows Itself at the Consumer Electronics Show
The annual CES tech trade show takes place in Las Vegas, which is an excellent place for a brand to showcase a car they are betting on for the future. The EQXX went from idea to prototype in only 18 months, which is incredibly fast. This could be the future of EV driving for this brand. The goal with the EQXX is to see how far the company can push design and engineering to give us a car that can drive farther than gasoline models while using nothing more than electricity to power the ride.
How Can Electric Vehicle Range Increase?
Much the same way you can increase the range of any vehicle, the weight has a direct impact on the driving range. Mercedes-Benz chose to combat the weight issue by using some lightweight materials wherever they could, including for the battery case. Electric vehicles are inherently heavier than their gasoline counterparts because of the massive bank of batteries situated in the floor. Along with the weight reduction, the team improved the drag coefficient for the car, making for an impressive vehicle that can cut through the air like a knife.
Building an EV With Impressive Driving Range
The new EQXX uses an electric-only chassis built in a lightweight F1 subframe. This vehicle has a 900-volt electric platform that aids the brand in developing the power electronics for this car. An interesting feature of this car is the roof. This area is made of ultra-thin solar panels that send converted electricity to the battery to add up to 15.5 miles of driving range to this impressive car. What are the results…We see the Vision EQXX is a car that can travel 620 miles on a single charge. The car brings 95 percent efficiency, unlike other EV models, which lose a lot of energy before the power reaches the wheels. This percentage for the EQXX means 95 percent of the energy from the battery makes it to the wheels. This is an incredible power transfer.
The Battery Pack is Much Denser
Increasing the energy density of the battery pack in the Mercedes-Benz EQXX makes it more powerful. The increased size of the battery pack gives this car more power for the drive. Of course, the weight with the battery pack increased, but the EQXX is the size of a compact car, and the 100 kWh of useable energy from the EQXX’s battery pack is greater than that of the EQS, which is a much larger car. Compared to the larger car, the EQXX has a battery pack that has the same amount of energy but is half the size and 30 percent lighter. This design achieves the overall goal of reducing losses.
Elegant Style in an Electric Merc
The exterior of the EQXX shows a sloping front area with a gloss-black grille that features rose-gold highlights. You’ll also see a 2D star pattern on the front bumper, which is found in the headlights as well. We expect to see this new star pattern and front styling in future models from this brand.
The rear of the car also features unique styling features, but the real surprise is the retractable rear diffuser that makes this a car we want to learn more about going forward.
Pulling Out All the Stops in the Cabin
The dashboard of the new Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX concept features a large one-piece 47.5-inch LED display with 8K resolution. The navigation system shows a 3D image of your directions, and the infotainment display offers a responsive real-time set of graphics to be the most advanced in the market. An advanced voice assistant is also part of the technology upgrades shown in the new infotainment system.
Integration for the Future
Will we see the EQXX concept model put into production? Not likely. Very few concept models make it to production, and the development of this car would make it too costly to offer it to the public. What we will see is several of the next generation models from the brand to use some of the features from the EQXX. These new features currently appear in various production models. The next generation of the Modular Architecture is where we should see many of these developments.
Could the EQXX be the Future of EV Driving?
The battery development alone brings us a denser amount of energy for increased driving range when compared to the models we see in the market right now. This could be one of the main items that come from this concept car into production. Imagine an electric vehicle that travels nearly 500 miles on a single charge. That would seriously reduce the amount of time it would take to travel across the country in an electric vehicle.
Mercedes-Benz Looks to the Future
We already have a pair of electric models from this amazing luxury brand, with at least one more on the way. As the entire lineup changes to electric vehicles, we could see new developments in battery technology and Mercedes-Benz could be the brand that leads the way. Nothing is mentioned about the increase in costs to add this new technology to a vehicle, mostly because the EQXX won’t make it to the production line. The future of electric driving could give us a world where we don’t have to be anxious about EV driving range any longer, especially with the addition of the EQXX technology.
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