Mercedes-Benz presented the Vision EQXX with appropriate fanfare, an electric study model that can travel more than 1,000 kilometers on a single charge. However, thanks to an experimental battery pack, the Tesla Model S comes a lot further!
Tesla currently sells two versions of the Model S in the Netherlands. The bizarre three-engine 1,020 hp Plaid and the regular nameless version that, with two 670 hp strong electric motors, also certainly does not have a childish powertrain. The Model S is also the version with the largest range. Tesla estimates the range of the Model S at 652 kilometers. However, with a different battery pack, the Model S is more than twice as far. Almost 1,420 kilometers even.
The American start-up Our Next Energy (ONE), founded in 2020, has developed a new piece of battery technology that is called Gemini. The Gemini battery that it put in the Tesla Model S gave the car a range of about 1,419 kilometers. The more than 1,400 kilometers that the Tesla Model S managed to squeeze out of a full Gemini battery was achieved during a test drive in which an average speed of about 90 km/h was driven. In an earlier test, the start-up managed to drive a distance of 1,210 kilometers with a Tesla Model S equipped with the Gemini battery without recharging. Our Next Energy has named its test Model S Gemini 001.
Tesla Model S
The Gemini battery pack in this Model S has 204 kWh capacity and a high energy density of 416 Wh/L. The Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX had a 100 kWh battery with an energy density of ‘almost 400 Wh/L’. That energy density allowed Mercedes-Benz to pack the 100 kWh into a package about half the size of the EQS’s battery. The Gemini battery will also not take up a lot of space for its capacity of 204 kWh. The Gemini battery pack consists more or less of two parts, each with its own chemical composition. The part with lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells is assisted by a part that can recharge these LFP cells and thus actually acts as an internal range extender. So experimental. According to ONE, artificial intelligence is responsible for energy management, among other things.
Future music? Could be, but Our Next Energy is a serious club in which BMW i Ventures, among others, has invested. The American start-up says it will continue to develop the Gemini technology in the coming period.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl