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Mercedes-Benz developing 100% electric car

Muamer Hodzic March 17, 2008

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We have recently learned, from a source close to Mercedes Benz and its Research Center in Stuttgart, that the Daimler AG is working on a vehicle “which will revolutionize the luxury auto market,” as they put it. The “revolutionary” vehicle will be an all electric mid-size to large luxury vehicle, and will feature a lithium-ion battery that can be recharged two ways. The first option will be with a direct plug-in, and the other option will be a small dynamo like device that will charge the battery while the car is driving. In current tests, the battery was able to get 170 km (approx 105 miles) before it had to be charged again, which means that the dynamo itself can only partially recharge the battery.

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It’s still not fully know which vehicle might get this technology, but if we look at some of the most recent developments, we can probably find the one that will most like be released with a electric motor. In a post we wrote in late February, we reported that Mercedes has acquired 25 patents for a lithium-ion technology to be used in the S 400 BlueHYBRID beginning next year. We also reported a couple of time on the GLK and its Hybrid intentions. If we were to throw out a educated guess here, we would probably say that the S-Class and the GLK, maybe even ML, will be the first “luxury’ all electric powered vehicles in the market.

Here is the most important questions for consumers. When will it come out? According to our source, a fully electric powered vehicle from Mercedes will come in the form of a new model/generation vehicle. If our prediction is right, and it is the S-Class, then we can expect the EV sometime in 2011 or possibly even as early as 2010, as that is when a new model is scheduled.

Comments (38)

  1. The dynamo system must charge the battery when the car is being powered other than by the batteries (e.g. small petrol engine), otherwise that would be perpetual motion which scientists haven’t cracked yet as far as I know!

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  2. I’ve seen the term ‘dynamo’ used recently in reference to electric vehicles. Is some way of describing the electric drive-train as seperate from the gas generator used to charge the batteries, without re-enforcing the contextual frame of a gas sucking combustion engine. Are the PR people afraid to say that you might actually put gas in this car? Why? If , like most drivers, you drive this car less than 60 miles (~95 km) every day then you would never put gas in this car, unless you were on a longer trip. The term ‘Dynamo’ adds a degree of mystery to this new car without paying lip service to any other manufactorer’s branded terms.

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  3. richard schumacher March 19, 2008 at 7:35 am

    When designing the transmission Benz should note that part of the appeal of the Prius is its highly reliable power-split device. I will never again buy a car with a clutch-based transmission like the two-clutch monsters GM has proposed for its hybrids.

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  4. The “dynamo” being refered to is an on board generator sometimes refered to as a “range extender” for an electric vehicle. It technically makes the vehicle a series hybrid (vs. parallel like the Prius and the others currently on the market) because as Denny mentions the generator (range extender) is mechnically connected to the drive system, only electrically connected.

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  5. There is nothing mysterious about a ‘Dynamo’; it’s the German term for a combined starter/generator that was used half a century ago by DKW/Audi. Today’s Dynamo would likely be electronically switched for quick-starting and regenerative braking, a starter/alternator of sorts.

    Reply
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