Remember at the beginning of the year, Mercedes-Benz released a pure electric concept car - VISION EQXX (hereinafter referred to as Mercedes-Benz EQXX), its two highlights are very eye-catching, first of all, the wind resistance coefficient is only 0.17, lower than many sports cars; and then there is pure electric mileage, known as more than 1000km, for traditional luxury car companies such as Mercedes-Benz, pure electric endurance "breaking a thousand" itself is the focus of attention.
The follow-up to the Mercedes-Benz EQXX is also coming, and the concept car has completed the first energy efficiency test of real traffic in Europe. Subsequently, Mercedes-Benz officially announced its relevant parameters. First of all, the Mercedes-Benz EQXX exceeded 1000km in the actual measurement, and the measured electricity consumption of 100 km was 8.7 kWh. Specifically, Mercedes-Benz EQXX departed from Sindelfingen, Germany to Cassis, France, with an average speed of 87.4km/h, a highway cruising speed of 140km/h, and a long journey through 1008km, leaving 140km to reach the destination.
Why is it easy to ignore power consumption?
If you just say that the pure electric mileage exceeds 1000km, I think this is not a new thing, such as GAC Aion AION LX can also achieve endurance "breaking thousand". But the difference is that behind the latter's long endurance is a large-capacity battery, which is 144.4kWh, while the Battery capacity of mercedes-Benz EQXX is less than 100kWh. In addition, it is worth mentioning that the NEDC pure electric endurance officially declared by AION LX is 1008km, which is only a theoretical value, and if it is actually running, I think, there is a "discount".
Therefore, the measured endurance of Mercedes-Benz EQXX has a higher "gold content". Another, and more importantly, among the many parameters, there is one value that is most easily overlooked, that is, the electricity consumption of 100 kilometers, which is 8.7 kWh.
What is this concept? We also take AION LX as an example, its 100 km power consumption is 15.8 kWh, and then for example, Tesla, which has a good power consumption of 100 km, takes Model Y as an example, the 100 km power consumption can be 13.9 kWh. In terms of values, the pure electric vehicles currently on sale, the 100 km power consumption of 10 to 15 kWh is already very good, and most of them are between 15 and 20 kWh. It can be seen that the electricity consumption of Mercedes-Benz EQXX 8.7 kWh per 100 kilometers can be described as a record.
Speaking of this, some people may ask, what is electricity consumption? What does it stand for? In fact, to understand simply, it is equivalent to the fuel consumption of fuel vehicles. For example, if the fuel tank volume of a fuel vehicle is fixed, the lower the fuel consumption, the higher the mileage, that is, it can run farther. The power consumption of the tram can be understood as the lower the power consumption at a certain time of battery capacity, and the higher the natural mileage.
The difference between electricity consumption and fuel consumption is that when driving a "fuel car", many people will mention fuel consumption, and fuel consumption is related to the cost of the car, not the length of the battery life, because few people who drive fuel cars will care how far their cars actually run, of course, the same tank of oil can run farther, which means that they save fuel money. And people who drive "trams", because the price of electricity is cheaper than the price of oil, so everyone will not consider how much electricity costs are saved, and naturally will not care about electricity consumption. But on the other hand, if the power consumption of a car can be low, then the natural endurance will become stronger, Mercedes-Benz EQXX is an example.
What determines the level of electricity consumption?
So, how does the Mercedes-Benz EQXX achieve ultra-low power consumption? One of the key points is aerodynamics, which we mentioned earlier is that the drag coefficient of the Mercedes-Benz EQXX is only 0.17. Specifically, the body of the Mercedes-Benz EQXX adopts a shape similar to a water droplet, and the windward area of only 2.12 square meters improves the aerodynamic performance. When the vehicle reaches a speed of 60 km/h, the active rear diffuser can be automatically turned on to optimize airflow, thereby reducing the drag coefficient. In addition, Mercedes-Benz has partnered with Bridgestone to reduce the roll resistance coefficient of vision EQXX concept tires to 4.7, further optimizing energy efficiency performance.
In fact, it is easy to understand that the wind resistance coefficient of a car will directly affect energy consumption. For example, fuel vehicles, cars under the same level must have lower fuel consumption than hard-core off-road vehicles, on the one hand, the wind resistance coefficient, on the other hand, the weight of the car. In terms of lightweight, Mercedes-Benz EQXX has also made sufficient efforts, and its empty load is only 1755 kg, you know, this is a pure tram equipped with nearly 100 kWh battery packs and motors. For example, the body uses a lot of aluminum materials and eliminates the need for non-essential structural components.
In addition, the Battery Pack of Mercedes-Benz EQXX is also designed to be lightweight, and its power is comparable to that of Mercedes-Benz EQS, but the size of the battery pack has been reduced by 50%, and the weight has been reduced by 30%, only 495 kg.
These mentioned above are basically aerodynamic and lightweight aspects, and the power consumption is determined by the three-electric system itself. For example, the electric drive system, with a maximum power of 180 kilowatts, can be optimized to transfer 95% of the battery energy directly to the wheels. In addition, to further improve endurance, engineers reduced the losses of the drivetrain (electric motors, inverters and transmissions) by 44%. There are many such optimizations, such as the heat dissipation of the electric drivetrain and so on.
Ah Chuan commented on the car
What can be proved by Mercedes-Benz EQXX is that achieving ultra-long endurance is not only a way to increase the battery capacity, but can choose to do "subtraction". Simply put, while maintaining a certain battery capacity, through various optimizations, low power consumption is achieved to improve battery life. And these optimizations include aerodynamics, lightweight, and three-electric systems, which can be described as a system work.
At present, a large reason why many people reject pure electric vehicles is related to battery life anxiety. Although the battery can be solved to a certain extent by enlarging the battery, behind the large-capacity battery is to increase the weight of the car, and increase the cost, as well as safety hazards. Therefore, in my opinion, the other aspect of improving battery life may be to reduce power consumption and find a balance point. Of course, as a concept car, Mercedes-Benz EQXX is only to give us the concept, to actually operate, it needs a process. How, which solution do you prefer?