Car stuff (public number: chedongxi)
The author | James
Edit the | Xiao Han
How high-end can electric vehicles be? Mercedes-Benz used EQS to give a sample to global car companies.
Today, Mercedes-Benz's flagship pure electric sedan EQS is listed in China, with a total of 4 configurations, and the price range is 1.0796 million to 1.5186 million.
▲Mercedes-Benz EQS price
The appearance of this car is beautiful or not, but the sense of luxury and premium exuded from the outside to the inside is obvious to all. Equipped with a large battery of 111 degrees, the entry-level model of EQS has an 849 km CLTC endurance, and the most powerful top model can reach 720 km, and the endurance is fully counted as the first echelon. In addition to the top model, the other three configuration models have an acceleration time of 6.4 seconds per 100 kilometers, which is a sacrifice of some power and acceleration ability in exchange for longer endurance.
Intelligently, the answer given by Mercedes-Benz is a front-row OLED triple screen + L3 level automatic driving.
This triple screen constitutes the MBUX car machine system, which is equipped with NVIDIA's Xavier chip (the same name as the automatic driving chip), 8-core CPU + NVIDIA GPU plus 24G of large memory, and the smooth operation of the system is obviously not a problem.
In terms of autonomous driving, EQS, like the new generation of S-Class, supports L3 autonomous driving, and German car owners will be able to use it on 13,000 kilometers of highways next year. Because there are no relevant regulations in China, at present, car owners can only use the L2 function of single lane L2 + automatic lane change.
To sum up, EQS has undoubtedly reached the peak of electric vehicles in terms of luxury, although the electric drive performance is not particularly explosive, but it can keep up with the first echelon, and intelligently with L3 can also make it equal to the new car manufacturers, basically matching the position of Mercedes-Benz's flagship pure electric sedan.
In terms of price, the price of the EQS entry-level model has surpassed Porsche's pure electric coupe Taycan and BMW's flagship pure electric SUV iX (both starting at more than 800,000). As the inventor of the car and the leader of luxury cars, Mercedes-Benz is obviously full of confidence in its flagship electric vehicle.
At present, in the million-level pure electric market, the largest number of tesla Model S/X models (there are no other models on the market to buy), with the mercedes-Benz EQS and BMW iX and other big-name million-level luxury pure electric models listed, do you think BBA can play a turnaround battle in the high-end market?
First, the minimum number of wind resistance system production car CLTC endurance is up to 849km
The Mercedes-Benz EQS looks like a bow and arrow, with no obvious corners between the front hatch and the front windshield, and the two almost coincide on a line. Since the debut of mercedes-benz EQS, such styling design has been widely discussed, some people say that the exterior design of Mercedes-Benz is still online, and some people say that this design style that breaks the tradition is unacceptable.
▲ Mercedes-Benz EQS
However, from the results, the bow design of the Mercedes-Benz EQS, coupled with the closed front grille and hidden door handles, has a body orthographic projection area of 2.51m2, a windward wind resistance area of only 0.5m2, and a wind resistance coefficient of only 0.20. This level of wind resistance should be the lowest among the production cars at this stage, and even exceeds the performance of a number of lower sports cars.
As mercedes-Benz's flagship pure electric sedan, its electric performance is the most concerned. The four models listed in China are EQS 450+ Pioneer Edition, Deluxe Edition, Pioneer Special Edition and EQS 580 4MATIC, which are equipped with a power battery with a capacity of 111.8 kWh as standard.
In terms of charging performance, the EQS series supports 145kW DC fast charging, from 10% charge to 80%, which takes 37 minutes.
Moreover, because Mercedes-Benz does not have a large-scale self-built charging network, car owners who want DC fast charging can only go to a third-party charging station to charge. However, given that most of the charging piles, including the National Grid, currently have only a few tens of kilowatts of charging power, it is actually difficult for car owners to use high-speed fast charging capacity.
Among them, the entry-level EQS 450+ Pioneer Edition CLTC can reach 849km, the Deluxe Edition and the First-class Special Edition CLTC can reach 813km respectively, and the CLTC of the EQS 580 4MATIC model has a CLITC range of 720km. Among the imported pure electric models, the Mercedes-Benz EQS series has the strongest endurance.
▲Comparison of the top models of the three luxury pure electric cars
In terms of power, Mercedes-Benz EQS is not like Tesla Model S, Porsche Taycan to do high-performance coupes, but in the performance and endurance to make a balance. Among them, the EQS 450+ series of full-line powertrains is rated at 245 kW (333 hp) and has an acceleration time of 6.4 seconds from 100 km/h. The EQS 580 4MATIC is more powerful, rated at 380 kW (516 hp) and accelerated in 4.4 seconds from 100 km/h.
▲The EQS is equipped with rear wheel steering technology
In terms of driving handling, the EQS is equipped with four-wheel air suspension for a better driving experience and with rear wheel steering technology to achieve a turning diameter of 10.9 meters. Such cornering performance is even more flexible than that of a hatchback A-Class. At the same time, when entering and leaving the side parking space, the Mercedes-Benz EQS can move the vehicle diagonally forward through four wheels of simultaneous steering, achieving rapid exit from the warehouse.
Second, the standard MBUX super screen one more co-driver screen
Entering the car, the most attractive thing is the large screen in the front row, mercedes-Benz called it MBUX super screen. This whole area consists of three screens, but is embedded under a whole piece of glass, and the performance of the three screens in one is very amazing.
The length of the MBUX super-joint screen reaches 1.41 meters, and the overall area is 2431.11 square centimeters. Among them, the size of the instrument screen is 12.3 inches, which is the same as the size of the meter screen of the current S-class model. The infotainment screen in the middle has a size of 17.7 inches, which is the largest screen in the car, the upper part can watch videos and navigation, the lower part can control the air conditioning, and the usable area is very large. At the same time, the EQS co-driver is also equipped with a screen, which is the same size as the instrument, both 12.3 inches, and the co-pilot passengers can also watch videos and watch navigation.
▲MBUX super screen
In addition, the Mercedes-Benz EQS, which is the same as the fuel version of the S-Class, is also equipped with an AR-HUD, which can project a 77-inch image on the windshield and display key driving information.
In order to achieve visual beauty, MBUX super-screen is also a curved screen in addition to the unity of the whole glass. It is quite difficult for the manufacturing process and screen materials.
According to the introduction, the MBUX super-joint screen uses an OLED material screen, so it can easily achieve curved surfaces. At the same time, the whole glass is hot-bent at 650 degrees Celsius.
However, the longevity of OLED materials is a difficult problem for the industry: if the display brightness is high and the same information is displayed for a long time, there will be a residual shadow on the screen, and it is permanent. This phenomenon is often referred to as "burn-in screen", and in order to solve this effect, Mercedes-Benz makes the area that needs to display the same image for a long time "move", and the displayed image will rotate slowly counterclockwise to reduce the afterimage.
In terms of hardware configuration, MBUX super screen is also very powerful, equipped with a Xavier chip, with 8 core CPU, 24GB memory, can achieve 46.4GB /s memory bandwidth, such powerful hardware can make the whole system run more smoothly.
Although the built-in chip is called Xavier, it may not be the same as the Xavier autopilot chip used in models such as Xiaopeng. Because in NVIDIA's product line, there are many products such as Tegra Xavier and AGX Xavier, whether it is Mercedes-Benz or NVIDIA, the specific parameters of EQS car chip have not been announced.
Compared with the second generation of MBUX released last year, mbUX super screen memory increased by 8GB, an increase of 50%. The second generation of MBUX memory bandwidth is 40.8GB/s, and mbUX super screen increased by 13%. Hardware improvements allow MBUX systems to run more applications at the same time and respond more quickly.
Compared with the first generation of MBUX in 2018, today's MBUX super screen has a particularly huge improvement, whether it is hardware configuration or software functions, there has been a huge improvement.
▲Mercedes-Benz three generations of MBUX comparison
There are 12 vibration motors under the MBUX superlink screen, which can provide haptic feedback on the operation of the occupants of the car, and the area touched by the fingers can trigger obvious vibrations. That is to say, the touch screen is not only touching a piece of cold glass, but also touching the content to provide perception.
This is a bit similar to Apple's built-in Taptic Engine in the iPhone, where the vibration motor can give users a strong tactile feedback experience.
In terms of AI performance, Mercedes-Benz MBUX super screen has also been greatly improved. In simple terms, it is to try to use intelligent voice assistants, highlight common functions to reduce the driver's time to look at the screen, and focus more on the road; at the same time, even without the driver moving or talking, the intelligent system will do the right thing at the right time.
In the EQS car, there are 350 different types of sensors, as the senses of the car, sensing the mileage, speed and acceleration, lighting conditions, how many people are sitting in the car, whether the driver is sleepy, and so on.
▲Mercedes-Benz EQS rear row
Mercedes-Benz gave several examples, one of which is to simulate the engine sound, through the throttle pedal position, speed, driving mode and other parameters, the system will calculate in real time which sound should appear, and play in real time in the sound, to achieve "calculated audio".
The second is that MBUX can recommend the right functions to users at the right time, and after obtaining user habits, it can actively provide more than 20 functions such as seat massage, birthday reminders, and to-do items. These unsolicited features are called "magic mods" and are displayed directly on the screen.
Third, equipped with L2 level automatic driving Overseas models will have L3 options
In terms of assisted driving ability, The domestic version of Mercedes-Benz EQS models are equipped with L2 level automatic driving functions, Mercedes-Benz calls it an enhanced version of driving assistance components, equipped with intelligent pilot steering, intelligent pilot distance limitation and other functions to achieve L2 automatic driving, and is also equipped with safety functions such as avoidance assistance, pedestrian protection, and traffic sign assistance.
At present, Mercedes-Benz does not have advanced functions of L2-level autonomous driving such as navigation assisted driving or urban road assisted driving, and has not announced whether it will be updated in the future.
However, on the EQS models released in China, Mercedes-Benz did not play its greatest role, that is, the ace L3 automatic driving system. The system will be installed on the first EQS models and will be delivered in overseas regions next year.
Last week, Mercedes-Benz's L3 level autonomous driving system was approved by the technical regulations of germany's Federal Motor Vehicle Transport Authority (KBA), making Mercedes-Benz the first car company in the world to be certified to the UN-regulation UN-R157.
This shows that Mercedes-Benz's L3 level autonomous driving can not only be mass-produced, but also sold worldwide. As flagship models, the Mercedes-Benz EQS and S-Class fuel vehicles will be the first to be equipped with Mercedes-Benz's L3 level automatic driving system.
▲Mercedes-Benz L2/L3 perception scheme comparison
The Mercedes-Benz EQS equipped with the Drive Pilot L3 autonomous driving system has a large number of sensors, including cameras, lidar, millimeter wave radar, ultrasonic radar and a total of 26 sensors. Compared with the current L2 autonomous driving solution, there are more lidar, rear oblique cameras and rain sensors.
▲Mercedes-Benz Drive Pilot sensor configuration
When a driver is on the highway but there is congestion, the Drive Pilot can take over all driving actions. At this point, the driver grasps the steering wheel and presses any button in the position of his left and right thumbs to activate the L3 automatic driving system. Functionally, the vehicle can identify lane lines, traffic conditions, and traffic signs. Mercedes-Benz's L3 level automatic driving system can also identify unexpected traffic conditions on the road, and according to the specific situation, the L3 automatic driving system can avoid risks or brake and stop in the lane.
▲Mercedes-Benz S-Class steering wheel equipped with L3 level automatic driving system
After entering L3 autonomous driving, the driver can free his hands and feet, and both eyes can also leave the road. Mercedes-Benz allows the driver to look at the central control screen, on which they can use the on-board office, browser or watch videos. Some applications that are restricted in manual driving conditions can be turned on during L3 autonomous driving. However, if you read a book and newspaper in the car, play with your mobile phone is not allowed.
Since the UN-R157 regulation stipulates that the maximum speed of L3 autonomous driving is 60km/h, after exceeding this speed, the vehicle will return to L2 automatic driving. At the same time, L3 autonomous driving can not handle all driving actions, once it can not continue to run, the vehicle will be warned in advance and prompt the driver to take over. Previously released information showed that Mercedes-Benz could give the driver 10 seconds to take over the vehicle. Within 10 seconds from the start of the vehicle prompting the takeover, the driver can take over at any time, but the vehicle still needs to be in L3 level autonomous driving state before taking over.
▲ Mercedes-Benz tests L3 level automatic driving system
If the driver consistently fails to take over the vehicle (e.g. if he is unwell), the vehicle will gradually slow down until it stops. After parking, the vehicle will automatically call emergency and unlock the doors and windows for easy rescue.
At present, 13,191 kilometers of highways in Germany can use the Drive Pilot L3 level autonomous driving function. In addition, Drive Pilot is also being tested extensively in China and the United States. Once L3 autonomous driving is opened up in other markets around the world, the L3 autonomous driving algorithm established by Mercedes-Benz on local roads and the developed L3 autonomous driving hardware can be replicated on a large scale.
At today's press conference, Mercedes-Benz also announced that the upcoming mass production of Mercedes-Benz EQE will be manufactured by Beijing Benz and will be released in parallel with the global market. With the mass production and delivery of a number of EQ series pure electric models of Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-Benz's pure electric lineup is constantly expanding.
Conclusion: Traditional car companies are still not to be underestimated
The rapid rise of tesla and other car companies has even threatened the future of established car companies. Some people believe that the level of intelligence of these models is relatively backward, especially autonomous driving and intelligent cockpit technology.
As a representative of the old car companies, Mercedes-Benz's progress in the field of electric and intelligent is very clear, in addition to the entry-level EQA, EQB models, but also for the global market to launch EQS models, in the automotive market belongs to the top existence. At the same time, the EQS price point is accurate, occupying a price range of 1 million to 1.5 million, and there are few pure electric models that can match it.