The day before the opening of the Beijing auto show, Mercedes-Benz did something.
On April 24, Mercedes-Benz's pure electric G-class off-road vehicle ushered in its world debut, officially becoming the last sequence of electrification of the Mercedes-Benz brand.
The exterior and interior of the new car are as much restored as possible to the design of the gasoline version of the big G, and all models are equipped with four wheel motors as standard. The naming did not continue the previous EQ "X" name, but chose to call it G580 directly. All this seems to indicate that this is a completely different model.
Even if there are many fans who are reluctant, the big G still moves towards electrification without hesitation. What are the highlights of this new Mercedes-Benz car? What does its appearance mean? Let the president take you to take a look.
(1) Hard core power, vigorously produce miracles?
Not long ago, Mercedes-Benz announced that the new G500 (2025 model) will cancel the 4.0T V8 engine and instead use the latest 3.0T L6+48V mild hybrid power system. Although the acceleration time has been shortened, the performance has not been weakened in all aspects, and many people still lament the departure of the V8.
And this time for the electric big G, Mercedes-Benz simply killed the engine and replaced it with a new wheel motor.
The peak power of the four motors reaches 432kW and the peak torque is 1,164Nm, which allows the new car to complete the 0-100km/h acceleration in 4.7 seconds, which is 1.2 seconds shorter than the gasoline version of the large G. At the same time, the minimum ground clearance of the new car is 250mm, and it has a wading depth of 850mm, which is 150mm higher than the petrol version, which seems to be more hardcore.
The classic "off-road three-piece set" has been retained, and the body is still non-load-bearing, except that the rear axle uses a rigid axle independently developed for the electric drive system, and the traditional mechanical differential lock has been replaced by an electric virtual differential lock, which is actually realized by four independent wheel motors with intelligent torque vectoring technology, and the result is that each wheel can achieve millisecond response.
The new car also adds a 2:1 gearbox to each motor, but the 2AT of other companies is to save power at high speed, and the gearbox of the electric big G is to provide more power for off-road driving. This also means that the electric big G will have stronger low-speed off-road and climbing capabilities.
The electric Big G can climb up to 45 degrees of slope and maintain roll stability at 35 degrees, which means that it can walk on the ground in almost any situation.
THE NEW CAR IS ALSO EQUIPPED WITH A VARIETY OF OFF-ROAD MODES, SUCH AS THE "G-TURN" MODE, WHICH ALLOWS THE FOUR MOTORS TO CONTROL THE WHEELS ON BOTH SIDES TO ROTATE IN REVERSE, ENABLING HIGH-SPEED IN-PLACE STEERING ON FLAT GROUND, AND THE "G-STEERING" STEERING MODE, WHICH USES THE WHEEL MOTOR TO LOCK THE INSIDE REAR WHEELS, AND THEN THE CAR CAN PASS VARIOUS EXTREME CORNERS LIKE A COMPASS CIRCLE. Of course, this function is no longer rare, and BYD has already shown us a round of looking up to the U8.
The new car is also equipped with the "off-road crawl" intelligent off-road crawling mode, which allows the vehicle to respond to forward and backward climbs and downhills in 3 ways of cruising at a fixed speed.
It's also interesting to set the fixed speed, which can either travel at a fixed speed of 2 or 8 km/h, or artificially controlled acceleration, adding up to 14 km/h and exiting when you hit the brakes. This also shows that Mercedes-Benz has made some innovations on the basis of the previous off-road vehicle "creep mode".
(2) After a thousand sails, are they all flowers?
In terms of off-road ability alone, the electric big G does deserve the name of G580. But anyone with a discerning eye knows that this car is difficult to be used off-road. Its positioning is not the same as looking up at the U8, Tank 700 Hi4-T, and Warrior 917.
The electric Big G continues the iconic box-box shape, and of course the classic round headlamps and the distinctive closing sound of the door are all underlining its identity as the "Big G" series. At the same time, these characteristics are basically "range killers" for pure electric vehicles.
Why do the Zhijie S7 and Xiaomi SU7 all "Taycan"? Why do they have to make even the doorknob hidden, and they have to worry about the risk of freezing in winter? Why do they produce design geeks like MEGA? To a large extent, it is actually to reduce wind resistance. And a "square box" shape is enough to make all the efforts of engineers come to naught.
The body with girders, four large electric motors, plus four gearboxes, makes the electric Big G weigh a staggering 3,500 kg, which is already close to the limit of the curb weight in this category of passenger cars, and even leaves only a loading mass of 415 kg. That is to say, theoretically, the electric big G with five fat people is ultra-narrow, not to mention lugging a bunch of luggage to go off-road.
The most lethal is of course the range, considering the extremely high curb weight and extremely high wind resistance, although the electric big G is equipped with a large battery pack of 116kWh, but the CLTC range is still only 570km, which is already the most friendly elaboration, everyone knows how much water this cycle test has. In fact, the European version of the media has done a test, according to the conditional WLTP cycle, the range of the electric big G is only 473km, a reduction of 100km.
The WLTP cycle is still a relatively loose test, really taking into account the off-road conditions of heavy vehicles, such as long-term climbing, or rainy weather, or battery power diving in winter, so how far the electric big G can run, no one can say.
After all, if the actual endurance is only 500km, it means that the activity radius is only 250km, and you can't even go to an off-road site.
In fact, GM has also launched the GMC Hummer before, which is also a hard-core appearance + cutting-edge technology, but there is almost no audience.
(3) Look up to understand the electric drive, Mercedes-Benz understands the user?
A while ago, Yu Chengdong ridiculed the design of the original mobile phone holder of Xiaomi SU7. He said that the Hongmeng system is to let the mobile phone application be fully loaded into the car, and it is not that the on-board system cannot be used, why use the mobile phone holder?
Zhou Hongyi jumped out to "support" Lei Jun, saying that the mobile phone can be placed on the stand to ensure that it will not be taken by his girlfriend to play, and it will always be in sight.
Netizens praised: Lei Jun understands users, Yu Chengdong understands cars, and Zhou Hongyi understands Lei Jun. The launch of the electric big G shows that Mercedes-Benz is still the one who understands users.
In the past 20 years, Mercedes-Benz Big G has sold more than 50,000 units in China, making it one of the best-selling million-level luxury cars. But if you look closely, you will find that although there is a strong engine and a strong configuration with three differential locks, it is rare to see the big G appear in the off-road field.
Compared with the gray face of other off-road vehicles, the big G is more often clean in various high-end business places. Compared with other off-road vehicles, most of the big Gs are equipped with high-performance road tires, and some even have AMG versions of large wheels.
Although the off-road performance of the big G is good, if you really want to take out such a million-dollar luxury car to play, most users have to weigh it, not to mention that it is not necessarily more solid than those third-hand or forty thousand second-hand Japanese off-road vehicles. As for the rise of brands such as tanks and formula leopards, the necessity of off-road for big Gs has been further weakened.
Because of the ultra-high price, it is no longer used as a tool car. From this point of view, the Big G seems to be more of a reinforced version of the Range Rover, with off-road performance just its label.
What's more, the big G is already taking the route of a luxury SUV, and the electric big G also has good luxury equipment, and it is also equipped with the second-generation MBUX intelligent human-computer interaction system as standard, adding the Burmester(8) 3D surround sound system speaker layout, and even adding a speaker with ambient lighting to the roof lining, just to allow users to have an immersive audio-visual feast like a concert hall.
From this point of view, Mercedes-Benz has always known what users want. If you split in the wild for a long time, it really can't be compared with looking up to the U8, after all, BYD has studied electric drive for most of its life. But what's so bad about being able to overwhelm competitors at some performance levels, make performance a label, and at the same time perfectly meet the needs of consumers, and quietly make your own fashion items?
Write at the end
From the layout point of view, the electric big G seems to be the "last bastion" of Mercedes-Benz, and it is also the last sequence to launch an electrified model. But soon Mercedes-Benz will launch the new Maybach EQS and AMG pure electric EQE, and it seems that Mercedes-Benz's electrification road has reached a new starting point.
Users of big G have independent parking spaces, and most of the time they are also driven in the city, from this point of view, the positioning of "fashion items" is actually very suitable for electrification, it depends on how Mercedes-Benz tells this story. Perhaps it will say that the car company that built the world's first electric car in 1886 is now starting to return to its old business.
The big G is undoubtedly a pivotal car for Mercedes-Benz, and it is also a good new starting point to start changing from it.