Mercedes-Benz has confirmed the landmark Vision EQXX concept car will make its debut on 3 January, setting the technical tone for the marque’s next-generation production EVs.
Described as “the most efficient vehicle the brand has ever built”, the EQXX has been previewed as a futuristic and heavily streamlined design study that could offer heavy clues as to what to expect from future production cars.
Mercedes is targeting a real-world range of more than 620 miles, and a consumption rating of more than six miles per kWh. Previously, it suggested the ‘compact-class’ EQXX would have the “longest electric range” and “highest efficiency” of any EV yet produced.
The headline claim made of the prototype at a strategy conference last year was that it will be capable of travelling from Beijing to Shanghai – a distance of 750 miles – on a single charge. Mercedes is keen to emphasise that the range has not been achieved simply by using a larger battery pack, and that the unit used in the EQXX will appear in a “future compact model”.
The EQXX development team includes “experts from Mercedes-Benz’s F1 High Performance Powertrain division (HPP)”, hinting at the concept’s top-rung performance potential.
Confirming the reveal date last month, CEO Markus Schäfer said: “We at Mercedes-Benz – as well as the entire automotive industry – must completely reimagine the car in the context of electromobility. The automobile as we have come to know it till now has been the product of 130 years of continuous development. What we have achieved so far has been amazing, but progress with electric cars must move faster – much faster.”
He added that it is “more than a show car”, hinting at the production applications of the technology and features it will showcase. The cell density of its battery pack, for example, is increased 20% over that of the EQS, and it is set to improve upon that car’s once-record-breaking drag coefficient of 0.20Cd.