Mercedes breaks 1,000km barrier with electric-vehicle prototype

Mercedes unveiled a car that it claims can travel more than 1,000km on a single charge, in an attempt to convince customers that a lack of charging infrastructure need not be a barrier to buying a battery-powered vehicle.

The range, which far exceeds the industry average of roughly 300km, was calculated using internal digital simulations of real-life traffic conditions.

However, a road-legal version of Vision EQXX will be shown off in the spring, the German manufacturer said, which will be capable of driving almost double the distance of a fully-charged Tesla Model S.

The car’s “toolbox”, which was developed with the help of Mercedes’ champion Formula One and Formula E teams, will be used in a compact model similar to the A Class, the Stuttgart-based carmaker added.

That vehicle will be available from 2024 or 2025, but will probably not have the full range of the prototype. Instead it will utilise the density of the battery in the EQXX, and solar roofs, to make a more efficient and lightweight car.

“All the elements that we see in this car will make it into series production,” Markus Schäfer, Mercedes’ chief technology officer, said.

“Probably we don’t need all this range in a compact car, but now we can downsize the battery, we can have even a much smaller battery than we see here in the EQXX . . . this means lower costs in the vehicle.”

Last year, Mercedes launched an electric version of its classic saloon, the EQS, which is capable of travelling more than 650km on a single charge. The battery pack in the Vision EQXX has 50 per cent less volume and is 30 per cent lighter than that in the EQS, the company said.

Mercedes is not the first to claim that it has cracked the 1,000km barrier. In November, China’s Guangzhou Automobile Group unveiled the Aion LX Plus, which it claims can also drive more than 1,000km on a single charge.

But the company says its technological advance will underpin a number of small and medium electric vehicles in the coming years, and that the breakthrough showcases the strength of its supercar engineering arms.

Mercedes, which has pledged to be ready to be an electric-only brand by 2030 if the “market conditions allow”, has come under fire for its ownership of a Formula One team, where cars run on fossil fuels.

The fact that several components of the EQXX, such as the inverter, were developed with racing teams proves “that innovations from motorsport, where powertrains are already highly electrified, have immediate relevance for road-car development,” Schäfer added.