Text | Joe Hill
I have always believed that when century-old auto brands are ready and the assembly line of million-level OEMs is fully powered to produce electric vehicles, it is the time for the future electric vehicle world pattern to truly take shape. Now, with the launch of the Mercedes-Benz EQS, the time is finally ripe.
A hundred years of Mercedes-Benz, the inventor of the automobile, began to "gallop" with full power.
Just pay a little attention to the recent news and you will find that Mercedes-Benz's "all-electric" is unstoppable. At the recent Guangzhou Auto Show, Mercedes-Benz just launched two new pure electric SUV models, EQA and EQB. But in fact, this is only the prelude to Mercedes-Benz's "full electric".
The highlight is today, Mercedes-Benz based on the large pure electric model architecture (EVA) platform, but also the industry's first large pure electric luxury car - the grand listing of the new EQS, it leads the era of pioneering luxury design, both safe and excellent driving of electric luxury, as well as convenient and efficient digital luxury and people-oriented technology luxury, is Mercedes-EQ's well-deserved pure electric flagship model.
As the new EQS at the end of the year, there is no doubt that you can imagine how much focus and effort Mercedes-Benz has poured into the new EQS.
After all, Mercedes-Benz is an important benchmark in the automotive industry, and the spokesperson in the field of automotive luxury is equally professional and firm in the transformation of electrification.
Inject the soul of technology into luxury
Many times, people think that the position of technology and luxury in the era of pure electric vehicles has been reversed. The integration of forward-looking technology with a more inherited luxury experience is often a black-and-white single-choice question. After all, not all options should be "C".
However, Mercedes-Benz's new EQS combines two important options that consumers need: the same Mercedes-Benz luxury and the new era of electric technology.
From the exterior and interior design of this flagship model with a length of more than 5.2 meters and a wheelbase of more than 3.2 meters, you can clearly feel the professional and stable performance of Mercedes-Benz in high quality and luxury comfort.
For example, the Burmester Berlin Sound surround sound system in the car, the refreshing function, the 11 theme colors provided by the 64-color mood light system loved by many car owners, and the hot stone massage effect, etc., the most talked about features of Mercedes-Benz in the past still maintain the top luxury level.
What is even more eye-catching is the MBUX intelligent human-computer interaction system installed on the car. MBUX super-screen seamless fusion of three screens, forming a curved screen belt up to 1.41 meters wide, almost visually integrated, if you are familiar with the new forces of car manufacturing, obviously Mercedes-Benz is not the first brand to launch a similar configuration. But the difference is that Mercedes-Benz has long thought about how to apply this "giant screen".
MBUX human-computer interaction system provides application support for this "giant screen". Such support is not a simple stack of functions, and the applicability after long-term careful polishing is the real core. MBUX intelligent human-computer interaction system, with 8 core CPU, 24GB of memory, memory bandwidth of 46.4GB per second.
As early as 2018, the first generation of the MBUX system was launched, and since then Mercedes-Benz has been constantly listening to and analyzing the user's experience and feedback. When users use the system, 80% of the usage scenarios are related to functions such as navigation, media, and telephone contacts. Based on this, Mercedes-Benz strives to increase the priority of the use of these functions and creates the application UI logic of the "zero-level interface".
The new EQS presents the most frequently used functions to the user in the most concise and efficient way (no hierarchical menus). The new EQS is also equipped with up to 350 sensors of various types, which are used as sensory organs in various parts of the car, and through artificial intelligence with autonomous learning capabilities, MBUX systems use these sensors to recognize vehicle information, which can measure perceived distance, speed, acceleration, lighting conditions, rainfall and temperature, seat usage, as well as the driver's eyelid movements or the language of passengers.
In addition, the user's usage habits are transformed into suggestions through the MBUX intelligent human-computer interaction system, which can provide users with many personalized suggestions for infotainment, comfort and vehicle functions, while many other functions such as refreshment with the help of artificial intelligence will be automatically provided to users when needed. The theme in the "Awakening mind" system also provides an impressive realistic listening experience. Created in collaboration with natural acoustics expert Gordon Hempton, these soothing sounds have been named "Quiet In the Woods", "Sound of the Ocean" and "Summer Rain", respectively, and in the rest of the refreshing mode, other senses are also fully mobilized through atmosphere lights and images.
The functional scenario of MBUX is much more than that. After encountering steep lanes, or speed bumps common in cities, MBUX remembers the GPS location when the user "vehicle lifts" function. If the vehicle approaches that GPS position again, MBUX will recommend raising the chassis of the car. With a camera in the driver's display, facial recognition can be used for a variety of assistive and comfort functions, including biometric authentication, attention-assisted fatigue warning, and adjusting the rearview mirror to a preset position. The new EQS is also equipped with a fingerprint scanner for driver authentication.
At this point, you should have developed the same consciousness as me – Mercedes-Benz has brought technology into the soul of the new EQS.
Break through the luxurious driving texture with electric power
No matter how times change, the essence of the car is still to meet the needs of better driving. No one understands this more than the centennial Mercedes-Benz. And this is also the core concept to be presented by the new EQS, a large Mercedes-Benz flagship model.
But the difference is that in the era of electrification, every design and every configuration is closely related to the driving mode and electric use experience of pure electric vehicles. The design must reduce the wind resistance as much as possible, the configuration must improve the endurance as much as possible on top of the driverability, the charging efficiency should be as high as possible, and the layout of the charging pile should be as reasonable and efficient as possible.
The new EQS adopts a "bow design", with the seamless design of the cover and wheel arch (there is no engine), and the tail of the car, the windward area is 2.51m2, the effective air resistance area is as low as 0.5m2, and the wind resistance coefficient is reduced to 0.20, becoming the lowest wind resistance coefficient in the world.
We can also see that the new EQS's 111.8kWh high-capacity battery brings a long cruising range of 849km under CLTC conditions. At a charging power of 145 kilowatts, the power is restored from 10% to 80%, which takes only 37 minutes, which can be said to greatly relieve the anxiety of battery life.
The new EQS high-quality five-star charging service has laid more than 365,000 public charging piles (including 185,000 fast charging piles) in more than 320 cities across the country and the "ten vertical, ten horizontal and two ring" highway fast charging network.
The purpose of the new era of electric vehicles is to make it more relaxed and convenient for everyone to travel. However, not every electric vehicle can provide a steering diameter of only 10.9 meters for bodies exceeding 5.2 meters in the technology of providing a maximum power rating of 380kW through rear-wheel steering.
Mercedes-Benz wants every customer to find a luxurious driving experience that belongs to the intelligent era with the help of the power of technology. These include intelligent driving assistance technologies such as intelligent pilot limiting function, active steering function, avoidance steering assist function, intelligent parking system, etc.
Not long ago, Mercedes-Benz has won the world's first qualified L3 level automatic driving system international certification in Germany. Thanks to the deep integration of a number of radars, sensors and high-precision positioning systems, the powerful intelligent pilot system (Drive Pilot). During peak traffic or congestion periods, the L3 level conditional automatic driving mode can be activated at a speed of up to 60 km/h on the German highway section of the german highway with suitable width.
As the flagship product of Mercedes-Benz's pure electric vehicle, the new EQS is also equipped with a large number of sensors, cameras and radar equipment (including 1 lidar, a long-range millimeter wave radar, 4 angle radars, and 12 parking ultrasonic sensors). It is believed that in the future, under the premise of regulatory permission, EQS will have the ability to lead users to the next realm of intelligent travel.
Write at the end
Surprisingly, the emergence of the new EQS is still just a prelude to Mercedes-Benz.
At the IAA a few months ago, Mercedes-Benz launched a large number of electric models in one go. These include EQB and EQE sedans, AMG EQS, Maybach EQS and EQG. Perhaps in the near future, these models will also come to our side.
For the top giants of the automotive industry such as Mercedes-Benz, when they mobilize the strength of the entire enterprise and sprint towards a certain goal, its amazing speed is difficult to stop. When they inherit a century of history and follow the innovation of the times, I believe that no consumer can refuse the enthusiasm and firmness of Mercedes-Benz.
The arrival of the new EQS further enriches mercedes-EQ's product range and becomes an important milestone for Mercedes-Benz on its way to "full electricity". The electric Mercedes-Benz has "stepped on" the electric door deeply, and the extremely fast "Mercedes-Benz" has risen!