Benz Drive Train BEV eng
Bruce Newton11 Jun 2016
NEWS

PARIS MOTOR SHOW: Mercedes-Benz to unveil 'dangerously fast' EV

Tesla-fighting GT concept to preview new battery-powered sub-brand

A Tesla Model S is ludicrous but Mercedes-Benz is promising its first high performance electric vehicle will be "dangerous".

"Dangerously fast" that is.

And this high-performance saloon looks likely for the Australian market – along with the full EV range to follow shortly after – because all the battery/electric models will be built in right-hand drive.

A concept close to production form will break cover at the Paris motor show in October, previewing a 2018 four-door, four-seat, all-wheel drive GT that will offer straight-line performance to match almost any conventional Mercedes-Benz model, including the heavy-hitting AMGs.

In fact, the EV powertrain could also spawn AMG-badged models eventually.

"We will deliver something, which if you would scale it in the Mercedes rank of all the other vehicles, it will be in the top three," Mercedes-Benz E-Drive System Integration Director Jurgen Schenk told motoring.com.au at a future drivetrain briefing for media in Stuttgart this week.

"If you look into the first 100m it will be very, very fast. If you look at who can go for the first two miles it will be different to out compete with an AMG."

Asked about the car's performance potential, Schenk said: "It will be dangerous." Later he clarified: "It could be dangerously fast, even the first version."

Benz EV poster


Schenk made it clear the EV's focus was on straight-line performance rather than scalpel-sharp sports car handling, revealing there would be no shot at a Nurburgring lap time for the EV.

"We are not aiming for Nurburgring, this would be the performance of a sports car," he said.

"The difference between a very agile passenger car is the performance you get in the direction X. The most important solution for a sports car is how fast it can go around corners, and we are not aiming to go for a car that is very fast going around corners.

"It will be a sporty vehicle in a size and in a situation where we expect to catch as much passengers as possible. If it would be a sports car the overall volume in our cake of customers for a sports car would be too small.

"There are bigger volumes in our segments and we will choose one of the bigger ones. So it makes sense to provide it into a bigger car."

Schenk suggested a good 0-100km/h time for a four door EV would be four seconds flat. No doubt that is fast, but a Tesla Model S in Ludicrous mode claims a substantially quicker 2.9 seconds 0-100km/h dash.

Benz EV Charging jy5o


At the briefing Benz also confirmed its first electric vehicle would have a range of up to 500km, topping the Model S's 400km range. It also revealed for the first time details of the modular and scalable Electric Vehicle Architecture (EVA) from which its family of EVs will spring.

In Paris Benz is expected to not only show the concept but also explain more about the models that will follow and potentially even reveal a name for its new EV sub-brand.

And the potential for an AMG version?

"We can easily get an AMG badge," Schenk said.

As previously reported by motoring.com.au, four Benz EVs are expected to be quickly on-sale. Two will be saloons the size of the C and E-class, while SUVs the size of the GLC and GLE are also expected.

Reports in media this week including motoring.com.au that the Paris show car will be an SUV have been debunked by sources within Mercedes-Benz.

The move by Benz is typical of the German manufacturers, who are all making a belated but increasingly rapid response to the US start-up Tesla, which has energised the EV market with the Model S that has been on-sale since 2012. It launched the Model X SUV this year and has already collected 400,000 deposits for the Model 3 due in late 2017.

Audi will launch the e-tron quattro SUV in 2018, while Porsche intends to build a production version of the beautiful Mission E concept first shown at the Frankfurt auto show last year, by 2020.

Globally, most manufacturers are now committed to EV programs, while the move away from the internal combustion engine is also attracting new players to the game including Apple, Google and Faraday.

But Schenk played down the battle with Tesla or any other manufacturer, portraying Benz's move to EV as a mandatory outcome of ever-toughening emissions limits and increasing customer interest.

"It's not a battle or something with whom else is out there," he insisted. "It's just we are convinced we have to go more electric and we do it in a way we can imagine we can do it within our portfolio and we can do it for every solution.

"The goal for Mercedes ... is to provide EV to our group of customers we have today, maybe get some customers more if we go for an exciting solution.

"The goal we have is we show them we have an idea how vehicles can be transformed to electric and the intent is we can do it in any platform the customers might accept."

The key to this plan is the EVA architecture, which was shown in sketch and model form in Stuttgart as an all-wheel drive with front and rear electric motors either end of a battery pack. While it looks like a classic EV skateboard it also borrows components from Benz's MRA (rear/all-wheel drive architecture)

It will allow front, rear and all-wheel drive drivetrains, be scalable for width and length, offer performance capability from 50kW to beyond 500kW and the potential to be fitted with a vast array of bodies, or top hats as they are referred to in the industry.

"We can put brand new hats on them," Schenk said. "This is the differentiation, if the customers wish to show up with a brand new design we will deliver it."

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