Mercedes-Benz completes 1,000 km electric drive on energy-efficient design
BERLIN (Reuters) – Mercedes-Benz goals to supply electrical automobiles consuming as little as 10 kilowatt hours of power per 100 km (62 miles), its chief know-how officer (CTO) stated on Thursday, a 3rd extra environment friendly than the present common for electrical automobiles.
Talking because the carmaker celebrated the profitable take a look at drive of its EQXX prototype car over greater than 1,000 km from Sindelfingen in Germany to the Cote d’Azur on a single cost, CTO Markus Schaefer stated environment friendly design was key to maximising an electrical automotive’s vary.
“First we optimise effectivity, after which we are able to see what number of battery modules we put within the automotive,” Schaefer stated at a media roundtable, including that prospects ought to have the ability to determine the dimensions of the battery they need primarily based on their wants.
Carmakers from Mercedes-Benz to Tesla to China’s Nio are in a neck-to-neck race to supply larger vary automobiles that dispel client anxiousness over the dearth of widespread charging infrastructure for electrical autos.
Mercedes unveiled its Imaginative and prescient EQXX prototype, boasting a 1,000 km-range with a battery half the quantity of its flagship EQS mannequin, in January, promising that among the automotive’s elements would make their method into sequence autos in 2-3 years time.
The automotive spent 8.7 kilowatt hours of power per 100 km on its 11-and-a-half hour drive to France, Mercedes-Benz stated, about twice as environment friendly as Mercedes fashions in the marketplace and Tesla’s longest-range automotive on supply, the Mannequin S 60.
Mercedes’ EQS has the very best vary in the marketplace as of but, based on automotive comparability portal carwow, with 768 km, adopted by Tesla’s Mannequin S Lengthy Vary with as much as 652 km.
“There will be an additional enhance for a while earlier than a fall, which can occur as soon as charging infrastructure is as obtainable as petrol stations,” Schaefer stated, though he declined to state what vary Mercedes was focusing on in future fashions.
(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee and Ilona Wissenbach; enhancing by Richard Pullin)
