Easycar's original Mercedes-Benz has its own goals for defining future mobility, and the goal at this stage and the next stage is to "comprehensively break through technical barriers and raise the level of energy efficiency to a new high", because Mercedes-Benz recently gave the public some answers with the VISION EQXX concept car. However, we are not only willing to learn about the innovative achievements of this car, but also want to explore the focus behind it.
That's why we interviewed Mr. Markus Schöfer, CTO of The Board of Directors of Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz AG, and chief technology officer in charge of R&D and procurement, to hear what he had in mind for EQXX and future mobility.
Q: How will Mercedes-Benz's claim that the VISION EQXX concept car is a software-driven model and uses a unique UI design through human brain bionic technology, how will this development process help Mercedes-Benz's future new generation and mid-size models based on the MMA platform?
Xue Fuming: First of all, the UI/UX interaction system on the VISION EQXX concept car is an early version of the future MBUX intelligent human-computer interaction system, and will be initially applied in the next generation of medium-sized and new-generation electric vehicles launched around 2024 and 2025.
Second, our idea is to take the UI experience to a new level of human-computer interface, and one of the important components is the future new generation of MBUX intelligent human-computer interaction system. In the future, the car machine system will not have any buttons, and will make more and more active predictions and judgments on the information and functions required by the owner, while filtering out the information that the owner does not need or interferes with it.
In the VISION EQXX concept car, we use an all-in-one display with a resolution of up to 8K, which can accurately predict and provide the information required by the owner at a specific time, such as time display, GPS positioning, driving status, etc., as well as timely push ordering, shopping and in-car system functions. All this is achieved by relying on background computing and sensing functions, and is displayed through such a large display. This oversized display is also one of the largest in-car displays in the industry.
Question: Can the electricity provided by the solar panels on the roof directly drive the vehicle? Where is its lightweight lithium iron phosphate battery placed in the vehicle, and how is the conversion between the high voltage and the ternary lithium battery achieved?
Xue Fuming: First of all, the VISION EQXX concept car is a future-oriented electric model, so we are also exploring many possibilities at the roof design level, and the roof solar panel is one of them, and in the future we will also develop other innovative roof system designs.
Second, this lightweight lithium iron phosphate battery for solar panel applications, which has not yet entered the mass production stage, is placed in the front of the vehicle. The VISION EQXX concept car has two battery systems, one is a high-voltage battery system dedicated to vehicles, and the other is a 12V low-voltage battery system supported by solar energy.
At present, the electrical energy converted by solar panels is stored in lithium iron phosphate batteries, which are specifically designed to serve low-voltage battery systems. In the future, it can also be stored directly in the high-voltage main battery system through a transformer. Based on this, we already have a patented technology that will enable the electricity generated by solar energy to directly play a direct role in increasing the range.
Summary: Mercedes-Benz not only regards the VISION EQXX concept car as a simple concept car, in fact, it is a future-oriented technology project, which is the prototype of the next generation of platform models. Electric drive systems, battery construction, inverters, and many technical components – such as solar panels on the roof, body structure castings – will be more or less reflected in the next generation of products to be released in the future.