Mercedes' stunning Vision EQXX will do 620 miles | FOS Future Lab

The secret to the big range is minimum weight, maximum slipperiness and a clever new way of packaging the lithium-ion battery. Mercedes says the EQXX is the most efficient vehicle it has ever made and an “entirely realistic” technology blueprint for production in the “near future”. 

In its size (2,800mm wheelbase), power (200PS or 150kW) and weight (1,750kg) the EQXX blueprint correlates most closely to the Mercedes C-Class. There’s no confirmation this is the basis of a new C, but we can hope – a four-door sedan that’s such a corker to look at surely deserves a production future.

For now, it’s a road-legal research prototype and a technology “halo” car for Mercedes and the global teams – including the brand’s Formula 1 and Formula E race teams – that contributed to the project.

The EQXX’s software-driven development presages a faster and more efficient way for Mercedes to develop its electric cars in the future. The first actual prototype you see here has arrived just 18 months after project XX got underway, during which time EQXX has completed 300,000km of development testing – in the digital world at least.

It would appear that nothing hasn’t been rethought to keep weight low, range high and ensure a low-carbon footprint by avoiding petroleum- and animal-based materials. It follows that EQXX is stuffed full of new technologies and materials, from its “bionic” structure to its “neuromorphic” computing power and cabin materials made from pulverised cactus fibres, bamboo and mushroom roots. Even the sound system was rethought, with the broadband speakers built into the seats. 

The result is an impressive kerb weight of 1,750kg – impressive at least for a car with 100kWh of batteries under the floor. That’s the same battery power as that fitted to the much larger and heavier EQS electric limo.

Increasing range by making ever-bigger batteries leads to diminishing returns. What Mercedes has done is redesign the arrangement of cells, the battery casing and its cooling system so you get more battery bang for your buck. That means the 100kWh of energy in the EQXX is squeezed into half the space the same power needs in the EQS.

Battery weight is similarly slashed, by 30 per cent to 495kg. Mercedes says it all represents a “virtuous circle” of battery size and weight reduction. An added bonus is the 117 solar cells in the car’s roof which can add 16 miles of range.

One of the keys to saving weight and space is the “cooling-on-demand” system to prevent such tightly packed cells from overheating. Shutters at the front of the car open and close depending on how much cooling air is required, working with coolant valves and water pumps. Cabin heating is by a heat pump. 

A 150kW motor powers the car and Mercedes says overall efficiency is 95 per cent – or three times that of the most efficient combustion engines. The 10kWh needed for 62 miles would run a tumble dryer for three hours, they say. The very high voltage (900-volt) electric drive system was designed in partnership with the British-based engineers at Mercedes-AMG in Brixworth who design Mercedes F1 engines (but not, as far as know, tumble dryers…)

This new power system is integrated into a version of the MMA platform, the second of the brand’s dedicated electric “skateboard” platforms for compact and mid-size cars. The talking point – Mercedes says unique – is a new and lightweight rear floor, digitally designed and the largest single aluminium casting Mercedes makes. The company says it is “bionic” engineering.

Most of the body is steel with the doors made from carbon- and glass-fibre reinforced plastics. EQXX hasn’t been short-changed on the looks front but with a drag factor of just 0.175, it is the body’s aerodynamic efficiency that is the major USP.

The small frontal area and teardrop cabin are expected; a retractable rear diffuser is something new (it deploys automatically at speed). Other factors in the car’s aero are a rear track 50mm narrower than the front, and 20-inch aerodynamically optimised magnesium wheels shod with ultra-low-rolling-resistance tyres. To save a few grams, brake discs are made from aluminium. 

With all that battery power and a shape that bothers the airflow so little, the EQXX is credited with a range of 1,000km, or 620 miles, usefully up on the 422 miles that Mercedes says the EQS has achieved in real-world conditions. 

Lightweight, sustainable materials and design simplicity dictate the interior aesthetic – that and a whopping one-piece LED display which at 47.5 inches is as wide as the cabin. Mercedes says it’s a voice-controlled portal to more or less anything you want that promises to be up to 10 times more energy-efficient than systems today. That is thanks to a new form of information processing called neuromorphic computing. Apparently, it spikes your neural networks. You have been warned…

 “The Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX is how we imagine the future of electric cars,” Mercedes chairman Ola Källenius says. “It underlines where our entire company is headed.”

Welcome to FOS Future Lab where we report on the latest visions of future technology. We'll be boldly covering flying cars, hoverboards, jetpacks and spaceships with plenty of down to earth topics in between.