Mercedes Benz announced on Thursday that its Vision EQXX electric vehicle concept broke its own record. The vehicle has a maximum range of 746 miles range on a single charge. From Germany to the Silverstone race track in the UK, the vehicle had a top speed of 87 mph.
A British race track with motorist Nyck de Vries, a Dutchman raced for the Mercedes- Benz EQ Formula E team. It coasted into pit lane exhausted after operating the last of the EQXX’s charge over the course of 11 stages. Mercedes said the EQXX’s efficiency during the travel was8.3 kWh per 62 miles. That is better than the first run‘s average energy consumption of8.7 kWh per 62 long hauls. The first distance record the EQXX set on a single charge, which was 626 long hauls in April, was done in37.4 to 64 degrees Fahrenheit weather.
Mercedes mentions that the car was taken up to its maximum speed of 140 km/h (86 mph), but that only happened once it arrived at its destination, the Silverstone race track, where Nyck de Vries completed 11 laps in the EQXX to fully drain its battery. One has to wonder what speeds this was driven at on highways on the way.
Technology
Mercedes has used its experience and knowledge gained in F1 racing to deliver a claimed 95% battery-to-tires efficiency. The German automaker employs an air-cooled powertrain design that removes weight while employing active aerodynamic elements. There’s a solar roof that is claimed to add up to 16 miles of driving range per day. While the EQXX is an impressive engineering exercise, it’s not a production car. Though, elements from the EQXX will surely find their way into Mercedes’ electric future.
To help reduce weight, engineers used software tools to create parts with high strength while using the least material possible, similar to what we’ve seen from hypercar startup Czinger. The Vision EQXX also has an integrated solar panel to supply supplementary electricity, something also proposed by startups Aptera, Lightyear, and Sono.
This latest run was important warmer with temperatures reaching 86 degrees Fahrenheit. The EQXX concert had a drag coefficient of 0.17 and was powered by a battery pack of less than 100 kWh. Mercedes claims that this is half the size and also a lighter pack, compared to the EQS. With this, the battery pack had 20% less energy density and was 30% lighter. Mercedes isn’t expected to launch a production version of the Vision EQXX, but with the automaker aiming to go all-electric by 2030, we hope to see at least some of the concept’s technology on future production cars.