Everyone will now have a very intuitive feeling, that is, the speed of launch of those new energy vehicles at home and abroad is too fast. I roughly counted, and there will be no less than a dozen new cars that will be launched within the year. More importantly, a variety of new software and hardware technologies have also flocked to the same brand, and there is a technical "generation difference" between different brands and even between different models of the same brand, which makes people unclear.
For most people, including me, this is a new field. In order to let everyone have more understanding of this aspect and have more references when choosing cars and buying cars, I plan to refer to the form of "cloud evaluation car" and launch a new column of "cloud evaluation new energy". It is hoped that through the objective analysis and evaluation of these representative new energy vehicles from a technical point of view, everyone can learn more new information and also serve as a supplement to the content of our car review program.
Back to the point, the protagonist of this first issue of cloud reviews is Mercedes-Benz's latest release of EQS SUV.
I can start by throwing out my point here: the exterior and interior of this EQS SUV that is visible to the naked eye are not amazing, and the freshness is even inferior to that of the EQS sedan. But as the first large-scale 7-seat SUV in the Mercedes-Benz EQ family based on the EVA pure electric platform, its technology in electric drive is completely handy, which is worth our good understanding.
Before I started talking about technology, I had to interject a few more digressions. In fact, frankly speaking, since Mercedes-Benz launched a pure electric EQ series model, EQC, EQA and EQB have also completely inherited the luxury design style of Mercedes-Benz, and the performance in terms of power and endurance is also decent, but in China, the hat of "oil to electricity" has always made the inventor of this car who is accustomed to being looked up to, and has been surrounded by a variety of "singing down" sounds.
When you are accustomed to learning to be a bully, you are suddenly regarded as a "scum of learning", and it is uncomfortable to change anyone's heart. The EQS sedan based on the EVA pure electric platform is the first force that Mercedes-Benz suddenly woke up.
In order to show its determination, Mercedes-Benz made the appearance of the EQS sedan completely demarcate with the existing S-Class, and adopted a "bow-shaped" body design to achieve a drag coefficient of 0.2cd, equipped with a 111.8kWh large battery, achieving a maximum endurance of 849 kilometers under CLTC conditions. Of course, the Hyperscreen super screen that runs through the entire center console is also a response to the current big screen trend.
In my personal opinion, this may be another form of "catharsis". From the perspective of these main technical indicators alone, EQS is not lagging behind compared to the pure electric cars that we can buy in China.
Back to the EQS SUV. Perhaps because many people think that the appearance of the EQS sedan is somewhat "too strong", the design of the EQS SUV has returned to the traditional aesthetic and practical orientation. In addition to the closed mid-mesh and lower bumper of the front face with a bit of EQS sedan flavor, the design of the body and rear is quite close to the outline of the EQC. The center console design is the same as the EQS sedan.
At least in this era of constant need for freshness and stimulation, I think this design is a bit conservative.
However, technically, the EQS SUV is not a simple "translation" of EQS. First of all, on the SUV, it is indeed impossible to achieve the low wind resistance of the car. Coupled with the increase in body weight and the increase in output power, the battery pack has been slightly reduced to 108kWh, so the endurance of the EQS SUV is 660 kilometers under the WLTP condition, and the maximum endurance of the WLTP service of the BMW iX is 630 kilometers.
To fight for endurance, the Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV should not have an opponent in the current mass production of large pure electric SUV.
In terms of electric drive system, the EQS SUV also adopts an electric drive system called eATS, which is similar to the rear axle permanent magnet synchronous motor on the EQS car, and also adopts the now relatively rare 2 windings, each winding is a 3-phase design (referred to as a 6-phase design).
The biggest benefit of this 6-phase design is that it can improve the utilization rate of the windings, improve the power density of the motor, reduce the current peak (less heat generation), and in a nutshell, it is more efficient and more power-efficient. Here is also mentioned incidentally, BMW iX also spent time on the motor, using excitation synchronous motor technology, in addition to reducing the dependence on rare earth elements, but also can improve the efficiency of the motor, to achieve lower power consumption, longer battery life.
Since the EQS SUV has a body length of more than 5.1 meters and a wheelbase of 3210mm, a rear-wheel active steering system has also been added. The standard rear wheel steering angle is 4.5 degrees, while users can also opt for a system with a steering angle of 10 degrees. This should be the rear wheel active steering system with the largest steering angle among electric vehicles (the maximum steering angle of the rear wheel of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and EQS sedan is the same as 10 degrees).
The standard air suspension is to be expected, and for the first time in the four-wheel drive version, the EQS SUV has added "off-road" mode. This is also rare in pure electric SUVs. After all, there is no traditional mechanical connection between the front and rear axles, and only the front and rear motors are relied on to control the power output of the wheels. In the face of harsh road environments, there is no doubt that higher requirements will be put forward for electronic control and electric drive systems.
But since the EQS SUV has not hesitated to add off-road mode, it should be ready enough. In the future, we get a test drive, and the challenge of the off-road field will also be one of our must-test items.
Many people say that it seems that Mercedes-Benz did not mention too much intelligent driving assistance functions and related hardware information this time. In fact, according to the information I have excavated, in terms of sensors and systems, the sensor configuration on the EQS SUV and the EQS car is consistent.
But it is very interesting that in the part of the official technical data describing the appearance, there is a secret hidden sentence: the closed grille of the "Dark Night Star Emblem" also has a function: various sensors of the driver assistance system, such as ultrasonics, cameras, radar or the lidar that will be installed in the future, will be integrated here.
In other words, EQS SUVs already have the ability to carry lidar. This reminds me of the previous Mercedes-Benz S-Class equipped with the L3 level autonomous driving system being approved by the German government to be legally on the road, and the NVIDIA press conference mentioned the provision of an Orin-chip-based computing platform for Mercedes-Benz.
When the version equipped with lidar will be available, it is estimated that it is only a matter of time and cost. At present, many new domestic brands are vying to join lidar on high-end models, but most of them still need 1-2 years to play a role on the open road. Once the environment matures, it is not excluded that the EQS SUV equipped with lidar will also appear in front of our eyes.
Finally, let's go a little further. In my opinion, the EQS, EQE, EQS SUV based on the EVA platform, and some of the next models, are Mercedes-Benz's products for the present. To put it bluntly, in some technical aspects, Mercedes-Benz has reached or slightly ahead of the current mainstream level, but it still does not have a very obvious lead.
Perhaps the real killer skill of Mercedes-Benz is in the EQXX, which has previously conducted open road tests.
This EQXX concept car can be regarded as equipped with all the latest black technology of Mercedes-Benz. The drag coefficient as low as 0.17, the biomimetic design and the application of new materials for lightweighting, and the lower energy consumption have enabled EQXX with a 100kWh battery pack to record a range of more than 1,000 km (15% of the remaining power) and an average power consumption of 8.7 kWh per 100 km in actual road tests in Europe.
In a previous online interview, Mr. Xue Fuming, chief technology officer of Mercedes-Benz, confirmed to us that the battery and electric drive technology of the EQXX concept car, as well as some lightweight designs, will be the first to be installed on the Mercedes-Benz electric vehicle based on the MMA platform in mass production in 2024.
In fact, counting fingers, it is only a little more than a year away from 2024. I have to admit that these black technologies on the concept of EQXX are really very leading now, and it seems that for the time being, I have not heard of China's new car manufacturers releasing similar technical information.
2024 is not far away, we may wish to see if Mercedes-Benz can re-become a "super bully" that everyone looks up to in two years.
222/4/24
Cloud rating new energy - Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV
by Wei Xiyu
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