Mercedes says it's for the long run • The Register



[ad_1]

The same week that the automotive industry discovered that the Tesla Model 3 was the third most popular car purchase in the UK, Mercedes-Benz unveiled an electric supercar at the Frankfurt auto show with great expectations and probably some relief.

The EQS Vision looks quite like the luxury sedan and has a striking headlight system, but the story of the day has been the calm of the car. Laboratory tests using the new Global Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP) indicate that the Vision Quality Control System can reduce the distance traveled to 700 km from a single full charge of the battery .

This places it far ahead of the nearest comparable luxury electric vehicles and greatly helps to calm nervous and well-off motorists who want to drive for pleasure rather than for shopping. Tesla's long-range S and X models, for example, are 595 km long, and the Vision EQS system could park 250 km farther on the road than the Porche Taycan 2020 before looking for a charging point.

Mercedes-Benz attributed this phenomenon to the electric motors of the two axles, as well as to the hundred kilowatt-hours of accumulator mounted under the floor. Its 350 kW charging system would be able to charge the vehicle very quickly to 80% of its capacity in 20 minutes.

A combination of a power of 350 kW and a torque of 759 Newton meters is also claimed to give acceleration from 0 to 60 mph in less than 4.5 seconds.

So far Top Gear. What makes the EQS Vision so striking is its black-panel external digital matrix lighting system that sweeps all around the car: the Lightbelt. This creates charming / vulgar effects such as floating stars on the back, but the commercial side is clearly ahead.

Combined with a modular sensor system consisting of radars and cameras (Mercedes says the EQS Vision is semi-autonomous level 3), the holographic lenses of the lighting system allow for extreme accuracy of each beam.

An obvious application is to mask the parts of a complete beam to protect other drivers from unnecessary glare. However, it can also be used to project graphics on the pavement, so instead of following the GPS indications on the satnav screen while driving in the dark, the driver could project the arrows, etc. in front of the car and keep an eye on the road.

The Vision EQS is still a concept vehicle but its appearance is much more than a prototype. In addition, Mercedes-Benz has publicly committed to a total carbon neutral policy over the next 20 years. So it seems that the future will be sold on electric vehicles.

We can only hope that the production versions do not overestimate themselves in the oven of good intentions. ®

Sponsored:
MCubed – The ML, AI and Analytics conference of The Register.

[ad_2]

Source link