Mercedes-Benz Vision Vision EQXX: 1,000 kilometers electric

Mercedes-Benz had wanted to present the Vision EQXX during the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, but is now pulling the curtain on its technical masterpiece remotely and completely digitally. According to Mercedes-Benz, the Vision EQXX achieves ‘more with less’ and is more aerodynamic than… a football.

First and foremost: the Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX is not a production model, nor is it a concrete preview of it. However, it is expected that certain techniques will eventually return to a production model in a certain sense. That promises a lot, because the specifications of the Vision EQXX are not wrong. It is the most efficient electric car Mercedes-Benz has ever made. The technological sign is more than 1,000 kilometers away on a charge, which means that you can drive from Paris to Berlin by car without recharging. For that enormous range, Mercedes-Benz has not stuffed its show car with a 150 kWh battery pack, but with a ‘less than 100 kWh’ large one. The gain is mainly in the efficiency of the model. Mercedes-Benz claims that about 95 percent of the energy stored in the battery actually reaches the wheels, which means that very little is lost.

Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX

The cW value of the Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX is a particularly low 0.17. To put that in perspective, the EQS scores a cW value of 0.20 and a soccer ball scores 0.18 on its cW report. However, the high-tech concept car loses out to a penguin (0.05). That way you learn something. By the way, you can immediately see from the show car that it has been in the wind tunnel for many hours. It has closed wheels and a remarkably long rear end that ends in a sharply truncated ‘Kamm’ butt. The EQXX stands on lightweight magnesium wheels with tires with an extra low rolling resistance folded around it. The slick study model also has lightweight aluminum alloy brake discs, a lightweight subframe from the F1 and has wafer-thin solar cells on the roof that, in the best case, add up to 25 kilometers of range. Mercedes-Benz has been able to achieve further weight savings by using, for example, pull loops on the inside of the doors and by perforating various materials and finishing panels. Striking is the front of the Vision EQXX, which shows few similarities with existing models from Mercedes-Benz and is even somewhat reminiscent of that of the Kia EV6. The rear of the car is somewhat reminiscent of the IAA Concept that debuted in 2015.

The electric powertrain with a single 204 hp electric motor is also relatively modest. According to Mercedes-Benz, the average energy consumption of the EQXX is 10 kWh/100 km. For comparison: Tesla’s Model 3 with rear-wheel drive – not exactly the most ‘thirsty EV’ scores about 15 kWh/100 km behind its name. The powertrain was developed by a team that also involved bright minds from Mercedes’ F1 department and is a derivative of that of the forthcoming Mercedes-AMG Project One, with an extremely compact electric motor, according to the Germans and a lightweight and relatively small battery pack with a high energy density as a result. The pack is roughly half the size of the largest battery pack in the EQS and weighs about 30 percent less. The whole becomes on demand cooled, which means that the battery cells are almost always at the ideal temperature. The cooling only partly takes place by the cooling system. The EQXX is peppered on the outside with (active) valves and cooling slots that cool things without using energy. Even with all valves open, the cW value only increases by 0.007. Very nice for efficiency. In addition, Mercedes’ CES stunner has a heat pump that sucks up residual heat from the electric motors and mixes it with the outside air into the interior. That also saves energy.

Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX

The Vision EQXX is Mercedes’ flagship among the study models, so a technologically advanced interior cannot be missed. Mercedes-Benz gives the model a gigantic display in the interior that consists of one whole and that is therefore not made up of several screens as usual. According to Mercedes-Benz, the infotainment system’s software mimics the way the human brain thinks. That sounds scary and vague and it will stay that way for a while. A nice detail is the ‘tunnel’ running lengthwise over the floor, which suggests that a drive shaft is hidden underneath, but that is of course not the case. No new technological feat without a passage about how kind the model is to the environment. For example, the brand speaks of using recycled materials, some of which are also plant-based. More with less, Mercedes-Benz shows how it can be done.