Photo: Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz unveiled the Vision EQXX electric vehicle (EV) with 621 miles of range, last year, and one executive from the automaker says the high range is part of the company’s focus on efficiency.
The German automaker plans to produce EVs that consume just 10 kilowatt-hours of energy per 100 km (62 miles), in its 100-kilowatt/hour battery, according to the automaker’s CTO Markus Shaefer in a Thursday report from Reuters.
Schaefer explained that developing such a car would represent one-third higher efficiency than the average for currently available EVs.
At a media roundtable, Schaefer said, “First we optimize efficiency, and then we can see how many battery modules we put in the car.” Schaefer added, “There’ll be a further increase for some time before a fall, which will happen once charging infrastructure is as available as petrol stations.”
Schaefer also said that customers should have the option to choose which size battery works best for their needs.
The news came on the heels of Mercedes celebrating a test drive of the EQXX prototype of over 1,000 km (621 miles) in which the vehicle made it from Sindelfingen, Germany to Cote d’Azur, France on a single charge, in a drive that took 11.5 hours.
The car used 8.7 kilowatts of energy per 100 km, which the company says is nearly two-times as efficient Tesla’s older Model S 60 and its 18.1 kWh/100 km consumption, as per its EU Energy label.
Mercedes-Benz announced plans to shift to EV-only sales by 2030, with the EQS and EQXX as the first of many models to come.
