Mercedes-Benz, the inventor of the car that accelerated "full electricity", is setting new standards for the era of electric vehicles.
Recently, at CES 2022, Mercedes-Benz officially released its new pure electric concept car VISION EQXX. As mercedes-Benz's most energy-efficient model ever, the VISION EQXX is considered to be the most disruptive model since Mercedes-Benz entered the era of electrification.
The VISION EQXX uses a smaller body size, holds the same capacity as the EQS, and can travel more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) on a single charge.
Greater energy efficiency makes Mercedes-Benz proud. More importantly, such a more like concept car, many concepts and functions have a very realistic prospect of mass production. What features can be seen on production cars?
In this regard, Che Yun communicated with Jasmin Eichler, head of the future technology research department of Mercedes-Benz AG, through video link, to see what secrets are behind such an extremely energy-efficient EQXX?
Surprisingly, the head of future technology research at Mercedes-Benz is actually a cute girl. Jasmin's name also means jasmine, what a beautiful jasmine flower.
Four or two thousand pounds: What is the difference between the Mercedes-Benz Maxima?
Compared with the simple practice of stacking large-capacity batteries to achieve long endurance, the VISION EQXX concept car rethinked the relationship between energy efficiency and endurance, hoping to create a new benchmark for energy efficiency.
According to the size, the VISION EQXX concept car is a compact sedan, the new car uses a 100 kWh battery pack, its battery capacity is comparable to the battery capacity on the EQS, but the volume and weight are further reduced. The energy consumption of 100 kilometers is less than 10 kWh, so that EQXX can achieve a single full charge of 1000 kilometers.
Jasmin eichler said: "The mileage of 1000 km is a very conservative data given through digital data comparison field tests, which means that the cruising range of 1000 km is more conservative than the WLTP service mileage, and if the WLTP condition is measured, the actual mileage is even higher." ”
According to some data, pure electric vehicles with a cruising range of more than 1,000 kilometers on the market are rare. In addition to the VISION EQXX concept car, NIO's ET7 can achieve a comprehensive CLTC operating range of more than 1,000 km after being equipped with a 150 kWh battery pack. The GAC AION LX PLUS, which was just launched on January 5, requires a 144 kWh battery pack for its 1008 km/sili version with a maximum CLTC comprehensive operating range of 1008 km.
Unlike other car companies that increase the range of electric vehicles by increasing battery capacity, Mercedes-Benz has increased the range by optimizing energy efficiency in vision EQXX concept cars.
In other words, the biggest difference in the endurance performance of vision EQXX is that it can cover more mileage with less energy consumption, which can be described as "four or two thousand pounds".
"During the development of the VISION EQXX concept car, there was a very close collaboration with the engineers of the F1 racing car, including the use of high energy density batteries and battery technology related to battery pack packaging, more advanced battery chemistry, more advanced electronic systems and so on," said Jasmine Eichler. In this development process, we learned a lot of knowledge and skills. ”
However, among all the measures, in order to achieve excellent battery life performance, which aspect is the most important?
"The most important thing is the aerodynamic performance. Through aerodynamic optimization, the wind resistance coefficient of the VISION EQXX concept was reduced to 0.17Cd, which is a very remarkable achievement. In second place is the efficient electric drive system. For the concept car's electric drive system, we have optimized every detail down to the cell level. This is followed by a lightweight body design. In the development of lightweight body designs, we use advanced digital technologies such as biomimic principles and highly optimized aluminium castings. Yasmin explained.
In addition, the EQXX is equipped with the "Energy Efficiency Assistant System" to improve driving efficiency, which can give the most efficient driving advice based on information such as energy flow, terrain, electricity, and even the direction and intensity of wind and sun.
What software means in electric vehicles
For Mercedes-Benz, in addition to leading electric mobility, it is also necessary to lead the software-defined car.
"Software drive has always been one of the key areas of Mercedes-Benz's efforts and continuous improvement, and it is also one of our important transformation directions." Yasmin said so.
A large part of the vision EQXX concept's excellent energy efficiency performance is achieved through hardware. However, software also plays a crucial role.
"UI/UX can give drivers a variety of information prompts, such as giving environmentally friendly and efficient driving style suggestions according to the actual situation of wind speed, sun direction, uphill or downhill, etc. At the same time, the combination of software and hardware can also help vehicles reduce energy consumption, and neuromorphic computing is a combination of software and hardware applications, this technology through intelligent calculation methods to make the vehicle run more efficiently. ”
Neuromorphic computing uses the same calculation method as the logic of human brain neurons, thus achieving higher energy efficiency.
"Around neuromorphic computing, especially neuromorphic computing chips, we have carried out a full range of cooperation with our partners. In fact, in the future, we will also apply neuromorphic computing to other functions, such as speech recognition and other functions. Yasmin said.
According to the data, the speech recognition function using neuromorphic calculation has a wake-up speed of 5-10 times that of the traditional voice control function. "This is a very exciting breakthrough because we didn't know exactly what neuromorphic computing has before."
However, neuromorphic computing is still in the very early stages of laboratory development.
"The human brain itself is a very powerful 'computer', but it does not consume much energy when running, which is one of the basic reasons why we are interested in neuromorphic computing. In the future, we can imagine that neuromorphic computing may be able to support more other functions, such as visual sensing for the interpretation and judgment of signals inside and even outside the car. Yasmin explained further.
Neuromorphic computing also means that software programming can be performed in a completely different form than before, because its underlying hardware works differently from neuromorphic chips.
"We're very much looking forward to the future of this technology supporting more and cooler applications."
Yasmin also mentioned the in-vehicle AR/VR technology that is currently hotly discussed in China. "We believe that in the future, AR/VR can play a role in creating an atmosphere-aware experience in the car. But in the process of driving a vehicle, we must use completely reliable and safety-proven technology, so at least at this stage we cannot rely on AR/VR technology 100%. Of course, we also believe that AR/VR technology will become an important part of the future human-vehicle interaction system. ”
Software self-development and procurement are parallel
Leading the way in software does not mean that all software needs to be developed entirely by car companies themselves.
"From a Mercedes-Benz perspective, there is a very important principle in our product development, which is continuity. This involves the continuity of iterations of software systems – i.e. not all software systems have to be redeveloped. Yasmin said.
According to Mercedes-Benz's previous planning, from 2022 to 2023, Mercedes-Benz will be equipped with a lightweight version of the MB.OS operating system on the next generation of new E-class models; the full version of the MB.OS operating system will be launched in 2024. Until 2024, the MBUX intelligent human-computer interaction system will continue to be upgraded in the form of software packages.
On the issue of independent software research and development or the choice of supplier procurement model, Yasmin believes that "the two must be taken into account at the same time." For the most critical and innovative software for vehicle performance, we hope to develop it independently. But that doesn't mean that the great software that vendors and partners have already developed will be overturned. We always combine the best software from our suppliers and partners with our own R&D. ”
In the UI/UX system, the proportion of Mercedes-Benz's independent research and development is also increasing, but at the same time, it maintains close cooperation with partners to combine the advantages of the two.
"While maintaining external cooperation, we are also increasing our investment in our own software research and development capabilities. For the VISION EQXX concept car, we combine existing software technology with innovative software developed specifically for this concept car. For some special use scenarios of Chinese users, we are also constantly expanding the scope of research and deepening research and development efforts. ”
Che Yun Summary:
The VISION EQXX is the latest concept car after CES 2020 launched the VISION AVTR Concept.
Compared with the highly sci-fi Avatar, EQXX is more realistic.
However, the EQXX concept car is still a technology exploration project, and many innovative technologies are still not ready for mass production. But at the very least, this gives many people a very specific criterion, which is what the electric car of the future should look like.
As Yasmine said: "Maybe one day, through continuous technology research and development and continuous efforts, we hope to see these innovative technologies used in more production models after 2024." ”