Mercedes-Benz EQXX First Drive: The Mercedes EV benchmark for years to come. https://youtu.be/6k0NnbXTtLo
Record-setting electric car showcases engineering that will guide future Mercedes.
“Now that it’s out, you can’t put it back in the box. This car is now in the room whenever anyone is talking about what’s possible and what’s not. It changes what you think is acceptable, and it changes your targets a bit.” That's Malte Sievers, one of the Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX’s project managers, talking about this achievement of a car.
Sievers was part of a small group given a simple-sounding task that was exceptionally difficult: Build an electric car capable of driving for over 1,000 kilometers (around 621 miles) on a single charge. In a gasoline- or diesel-powered car, achieving a 600-plus-mile driving range is easy: Fit a bigger (or a second) fuel tank and call it a good job well done. In an electric car, it’s much harder.
The team pulled it off. Unveiled in January 2022, the EQXX proved in April that it’s capable of breaking the 1,000-kilometer barrier by driving from Stuttgart, Germany, to Cassis, France, without stopping to charge. It headed to England and broke its own record by about 125 miles in June. It’s destined to remain a prototype, a rolling display of technology not designed or fit for mass production, but it will bring Mercedes-Benz engineers more than bragging rights. Many of the lessons learned during the project will influence the electric cars that the German company plans to release later in the 2020s.
I traveled to Germany to drive the EQXX and chat with some of the folks who developed it.
Mercedes launched the EQXX project in 2020. The only guideline it gave the men and women assigned to it was to find a way to cross the 1,000-kilometer mark. Projects like this aren’t common, but a look through the company’s history confirms that they’re also not unusual. We’ve seen several high-tech proof-of-concept-type experiments roll out of Stuttgart, including the Auto 2000 from 1981. While many previous projects focused on safety, the EQXX’s emphasis on range required starting with a blank slate.
“Efficiency in the age of electric vehicles is very much about looking at every single part of the car,” Sievers said. “You need to improve every single area. Everything that has a weight needs to become lighter, everything that transfers energy needs to become more efficient, and everything that’s on the outside needs to be as aerodynamic as possible.” Several departments collaborated to make it happen.
The most important factor that affects efficiency, and in turn range, is aerodynamic drag. Designers achieved a 0.17 drag coefficient while retaining a shape that resembles a car (rather than a rocket with wheels), which is remarkable. By comparison, the most aerodynamic series-produced car that Mercedes has ever released is the electric EQS sedan, which posts a drag coefficient of 0.20. Leaping from, say, 0.30 to 0.20 requires a great deal of effo
Record-setting electric car showcases engineering that will guide future Mercedes.
“Now that it’s out, you can’t put it back in the box. This car is now in the room whenever anyone is talking about what’s possible and what’s not. It changes what you think is acceptable, and it changes your targets a bit.” That's Malte Sievers, one of the Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX’s project managers, talking about this achievement of a car.
Sievers was part of a small group given a simple-sounding task that was exceptionally difficult: Build an electric car capable of driving for over 1,000 kilometers (around 621 miles) on a single charge. In a gasoline- or diesel-powered car, achieving a 600-plus-mile driving range is easy: Fit a bigger (or a second) fuel tank and call it a good job well done. In an electric car, it’s much harder.
The team pulled it off. Unveiled in January 2022, the EQXX proved in April that it’s capable of breaking the 1,000-kilometer barrier by driving from Stuttgart, Germany, to Cassis, France, without stopping to charge. It headed to England and broke its own record by about 125 miles in June. It’s destined to remain a prototype, a rolling display of technology not designed or fit for mass production, but it will bring Mercedes-Benz engineers more than bragging rights. Many of the lessons learned during the project will influence the electric cars that the German company plans to release later in the 2020s.
I traveled to Germany to drive the EQXX and chat with some of the folks who developed it.
Mercedes launched the EQXX project in 2020. The only guideline it gave the men and women assigned to it was to find a way to cross the 1,000-kilometer mark. Projects like this aren’t common, but a look through the company’s history confirms that they’re also not unusual. We’ve seen several high-tech proof-of-concept-type experiments roll out of Stuttgart, including the Auto 2000 from 1981. While many previous projects focused on safety, the EQXX’s emphasis on range required starting with a blank slate.
“Efficiency in the age of electric vehicles is very much about looking at every single part of the car,” Sievers said. “You need to improve every single area. Everything that has a weight needs to become lighter, everything that transfers energy needs to become more efficient, and everything that’s on the outside needs to be as aerodynamic as possible.” Several departments collaborated to make it happen.
The most important factor that affects efficiency, and in turn range, is aerodynamic drag. Designers achieved a 0.17 drag coefficient while retaining a shape that resembles a car (rather than a rocket with wheels), which is remarkable. By comparison, the most aerodynamic series-produced car that Mercedes has ever released is the electric EQS sedan, which posts a drag coefficient of 0.20. Leaping from, say, 0.30 to 0.20 requires a great deal of effo
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