Reveals Secrets Of Electric Vehicle Development, Mercedes: Efficiency Is Key!

Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV 2023. (Doc. Mercedes-Benz Group)

JAKARTA - Mercedes-Benz, a leading German automaker, firmly affirms its commitment to electric vehicles. This luxury brand has designed a long-term strategy for this segment.

In recent years, Mercedes-Benz has launched a series of electric vehicle (EV) models on its EQ product lines, including EQA, EQE, EQS, and others. In fact, in the near future, Mercedes will introduce the concept car which is expected to be a milestone for the new era, namely the CLA concept.

According to claims from Mercedes-Benz, the CLA concept car offers a tremendous level of energy efficiency, with a power consumption of about 12 kWh per 100 km and a distance of more than 750 km in a single charge.

Despite its impressive performance, these figures are still more efficient than the EQA 350 SUV model which requires 17-18 kWh per 100 km.

This confirms that Mercedes-Benz presents EVs with a high level of efficiency. Ola Kallenius, CEO of Mercedes-Benz, said that this is key if you want to bring electric vehicles.

"Efficiency is a new currency when we switch to electric vehicles," said Kllenius, quoted by Reuters, Friday, September 1.

In the context of the latest CLA concept, this car must reach a level of fuel consumption equivalent to one liter per 100 km. This has been an old target for European car manufacturers.

Although cars like Volkswagen XL1 have hit this target with diesel-electric powertrains, Volkswagen only sells them in limited quantities, around 200 units.

In addition, Mercedes has additional challenges in managing the high power consumption of Nvidia chips that control driver assistance systems, large infotainment screens, and other components in CLA and other EVs.

"When we talk about the efficiency of electric cars, we have to optimize the whole system," added Kllenius.

The CLA concept will be built on the latest platform, namely the Mercedes-Benz Modular Architecture (MMA), which is also used in EQXX, which allows the integration of leading features.

With this, Mercedes-Benz will simplify its electric vehicle product line and gradually halt production of the A-Class model with combustion engines.

Mercedes also confirmed that the technology found in EQXX will be moved to a production model, meaning these features will be up-to-date and unavailable in other vehicles.