It would be easy to dismiss the Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX as the latest electric concept car that doesn’t match reality. At first glance, its ultra-futuristic styling and top-of-the-range range/performance goals aren’t within any automaker standards.
But Mercedes has said that many parts of the car (if not the car itself) will enter mass production, perhaps as early as 2024.
That gives the Vision EQXX a dose of more seriousness that was only magnified after spending an afternoon with the prototype in Los Angeles last week. The car on display is different from the one Mercedes revealed earlier this year; This version I see is just an exterior concept while the other car with the complete interior is in Germany. That means no pillar-shaped Hyperscreen on the inside and no solar roof, although the vehicle on display was able to show off some of the active aerodynamics that help the Vision EQXX achieve. get a drag coefficient of 0.17 which is super slippery. That is at best 0.20 Cd of the Mercedes EQS and even 0.19 achieved by Volkswagen XL1.
Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX Concept
Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX Concept
Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX Concept
A small set of active grille shutters located on the underside of the front bumper help direct air through channels that exit the hood and open only when more cooling is required. That air flows through a small cooling pad located on the underside of the car. There’s also a deployable rear diffuser that lowers and expands when the EQXX is driving, and then folds back up when parked to avoid damage as it extends to the rear of the vehicle quite low. Even the front logo is painted over, rather than raised, which speaks for more philosophy than tangible benefit.
Mercedes says it could make it even more slippery by adding things like wheel covers, but decided that the design element in particular was too far-fetched. That implies that the rest of the EQXX style stems from some degree of practicality and predictability what future Mercedes EVs might look like, especially for midsize cars. and compact will also use the next generation Mercedes-Benz Modular Architecture (MMA) Platform found in the EQXX.
Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX Concept
Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX Concept
Making the vehicle slippery has ancillary benefits, from extra range, to reducing the load on the battery allowing the vehicle to run at full speed. Passive cooling. Mercedes engineers say that at EQXX they really had to find a way to generate heat to make the battery more efficient, and had to add insulation, not extra cooling. To reduce friction, EQXX also features specially developed low rolling resistance tires from Bridgestone and wheel caps that are more aerodynamic than standard rims.
Not adding a cooling system to help reduce weight, another point that Mercedes focuses on is the aerodynamics of the car. That starts with the battery, which produces roughly the same amount of power as the EQS battery pack but at half the size and 30% less weight, thanks to the higher energy density. Mercedes also confirmed that this is the same size of the battery pack that we will see in the first generation of vehicles on the MMA platform, although they may have different outputs and capacities.
Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX Concept
Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX Concept
Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX Concept
Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX Concept
Also adding to the vehicle’s lightness is the wider use of Mercedes’ Bioniccast spare process. This was first used in 2020 on a production vehicle on the S-Class strut tower, where it cut the weight of the part in half. Instead of simply casting parts of uniform thickness, a computer process is used to determine where the structure is under more pressure and where it can be thinner to save weight and material. rough.
This process was first applied in large form on the EQXX, where the entire rear third of the subframe was molded into one piece (as seen in the photo above). The end result is a large metal section that looks more like an alien structure from a sci-fi movie, with holes and cuts all over the place. But Mercedes engineers assured me that not only was it light (so light I could lift one with one hand), it was still strong enough to meet the company’s rigorous safety standards.
The result is a powerful combination of light weight and aerodynamics, but what Mercedes engineers seem most proud of is the efficiency of the powertrain. It is 95% energy efficient from cell to wheel, while most electric cars move around the 90% mark. Much of this loss is heat but engineers were able to cut it in half, and this efficiency is what makes the EQXX’s charging more efficient. It can add 186 miles of range in just 15 minutes of fast charging, because the amount of power required to drive the car is so low.
Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX Concept
What has attracted the most attention is Mercedes’ range estimate of 621 real-world miles per charge, a number the company expects to put to the test next month when driving from Germany into the Mediterranean Sea at highway speeds and on public roads. Stay tuned for that as that test will show us how accurate that projection can be and how capable the MMA platform can be in the future.
Although the show car doesn’t have an interior, I was shown a preview of what the EQXX’s ultra-thin 47.5-inch pillar-to-post display will look like. Instead of the existing superscreen setup that offers three different screens behind a single pane of glass, this is a single display that spans the entire panel. In some ways, it’s much less overwhelming than the Hyperscreen experience in the upcoming EQS and EQE, as information can be spread more and the graphics feel more realistic when they’re on the gaming engine. to enhance the image of the system.
For a project that took just 18 months from start to finish, the Vision EQXX feels thorough and grounded in a rapidly approaching reality, with improvements that would easily apply to the line. Mercedes EVs for years to come.
