Northern Sweden is just not a spot to go to flippantly, no matter season. Hit it within the temperate summer season months, and also you’ll be confronted with clouds of mosquitoes so thick they darken the skies. The bugs are gone within the winter months, however then it’s the dearth of solar that retains issues dim. Dim and legendarily chilly.
That chilly has turned the Lapland area of Sweden into the final word playground for prototype car testing. The frigid temps put the best-engineered autos to the check, whereas the snow-covered roads problem the traction of the perfect drivetrains.
When that’s not slippery sufficient, engineers head to one of many hundreds of frozen lakes, which is strictly the place I received my first go behind the wheel of a pre-production Mercedes-Benz CLA. When this new electrical CLA enters manufacturing later this 12 months, it’s going to mark the start of a brand new technology of EVs for the corporate.
Mercedes-Benz already provides a wealth of electrical choices, from the common-or-garden EQB SUV to the positively opulent Mercedes-Maybach EQS SUV. The upcoming CLA sedan gained’t make these machines out of date. Nonetheless, it does present that the perfect is but to come back, delivering vital enhancements that ship longer vary, quicker charging, and higher efficiency in future Benz EVs. The tech seen right here will unfold to a brand new technology of sedans, SUVs, plus one thing considerably larger.
New Battery Beginnings
It begins with an improved battery pack. Mercedes isn’t fully rebooting the design that at the moment powers the EQE and EQS. Nevertheless, revised parts like graphite anodes with silicon oxides plus tweaked chemistry enhance power density by 20 % whereas additionally lowering reliance on problematic (and dear) supplies like cobalt. The result’s a battery that’s, pound-for-pound, extra highly effective, and eco-friendly.
That battery is charged by a brand new electrical structure constructed round a silicon carbide (SiC) inverter. This expertise allows quicker, extra environment friendly charging. It’s an 800-volt structure with a most charging charge of 320 kW. That’s loads of juice, sufficient so as to add 186 miles of vary to the CLA in simply 10 minutes.
The CLA is estimated to do some 466 miles on a single cost of its 85 kWh battery pack. Mercedes’ present electrical sedan, the EQE, goes 308 miles on a cost of its 96-kWh battery pack. Far more vary from a a lot smaller battery is nice information for anybody affected by vary nervousness.
Different Tech Tweaks
It’s not simply the battery enabling that sort of vary. Mercedes engineers have additionally tweaked their electrical motor design, placing a two-speed transmission on the rear axle of the CLA in order that it delivers higher acceleration at greater speeds and higher effectivity general.
There’s additionally a brand new braking system that extra easily and effectively depends on the electrical motors to sluggish the automotive down, solely calling on the bodily brakes when wanted. So, when it’s time to cease accelerating and begin slowing down, the automotive can higher flip its momentum into power.
And at last, Mercedes has a radically improved warmth pump. This new module can pull thermal power from the warmth of the electrical motors, battery pack, and ambient air. Mercedes engineers advised me that this new system is just not solely twice as environment friendly as the warmth pumps within the firm’s present EVs, nevertheless it’s capable of heat their vehicles’ cabins twice as shortly.
On Ice
This brings us again to Sweden and me sliding a pre-production CLA sideways round a frozen lake. I used to be toasty and heat, sure, with each seat and steering wheel heaters firing, however I used to be additionally grinning ear-to-ear. The 2-motor setup on the CLA meant I had all 4 wheels biting for grip on the lake’s floor, throwing up a giant cloud of snow and ice behind me.
The all-wheel-drive CLA makes 107 horsepower from its entrance motor and 268 from the rear, which means round 375 horsepower whole. That was a lot sufficient for it to speed up strongly even on the slick floor, and due to that two-speed transmission, it was nonetheless pulling exhausting to 100 mph after I began working out of room to speed up.
I additionally received to drive an earlier pre-production model of the corporate’s electrical GLC SUV. Although bigger in each dimension, the GLC shares lots of the identical enhancements, together with the braking system.
Typically when driving EVs or hybrids, it may be tough to cease the automotive exactly. The preliminary press of the brake pedal is imprecise and unresponsive because the automotive depends on the recuperative energy of the electrical motors. Then, whenever you push your foot a little bit farther, the automotive lurches to a cease when the bodily brakes come into motion.
This new system handles all that within the background, calculating and recalculating the way to greatest ship the deceleration you’re requesting. The larger GLC braked easily to a cease on extremely tough and uneven surfaces.
The GLC made fast work of accelerating, too, even up slick inclines on a mountain cross that Mercedes had reserved for our use. When the snow received deep, a fast faucet on the touchscreen lifted the GLC’s air suspension by an inch, giving loads of clearance to deal with some completely rutted-out sections.
A Luxurious Van?
The CLA and GLC prototypes had been spectacular, nevertheless it was a fast run round a closed course in one thing else that actually blew my thoughts. It’s a next-generation van platform that guarantees to be in contrast to something we’ve seen earlier than.
I’ve pushed the Sprinter and different Mercedes vans prior to now, and whereas they’re good when in comparison with different huge industrial vans, they provide little of the refinement present in Mercedes’ luxurious vehicles. With this new electrical van platform, referred to as VAN.EA, that every one modifications.
The van I drove was extremely easy, even when charging over tough surfaces. It was quiet, too, regardless of having just about no inside trim.
Why is that this vital? As a result of Mercedes has one thing particular in retailer. Dr. Andreas Zygan, head of growth at Mercedes-Benz Vans, advised me how car upfitters in China are making a killing by taking Mercedes’ present industrial vans and turning them into limousines.
“Any individual else buys it from us, turns it into an expensive model, possibly with completely different seats, a distinct inside, or a giant display screen, or one thing like that. After which they promote it at a a lot greater worth to our prospects,” he stated.
Pay sufficient, and you may even get a Chinese language-made luxurious van festooned with Maybach logos, the image usually reserved for Mercedes’ most luxurious vehicles. That’s regardless of Mercedes having completely nothing to do with them. This, Dr. Zygan stated, is proof that there’s curiosity in a higher-end, luxurious van, which may very well be constructed on this new electrical platform.
I requested if that may imply Mercedes would construct an official Maybach van sometime.
“No remark,” he stated.
Watch this area for extra, however whether or not it’s a van, SUV, or the corporate’s extra conventional luxurious sedans, Mercedes-Benz’s revised EV expertise seems to be set to boost the bar in vary and refinement. Will it’s sufficient to woo EV-skeptical shoppers? Mercedes is actually nonetheless bullish on electrical vehicles, nevertheless it’s hedging its bets to a point. Each the CLA and the next-generation vans will probably be out there as hybrids, too.
This text was written by Tim Stevens and was first seen on Value.com
In regards to the Creator – Tim Stevens
Tim Stevens is a contract automotive and expertise journalist with greater than 25 years of expertise. He’s a frequent contributor to main home and worldwide on-line, print, and broadcast information retailers together with MotorTrend, TechCrunch, Wired, CBS and the AP, sharing his insights and views on the whole lot from cybersecurity to supercars.
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