This article is reproduced from autocarweekly WeChat official account, written by Qiao Shan.
I have always believed that the true shaping of the electric vehicle world will come when century-old automobile brands have all prepared themselves and million-level OEMs have fully ramped up their production lines to produce electric vehicles with full force. Now, with the launch of the Mercedes-Benz EQS, this moment has finally arrived.
As the inventor of automobiles and a century-old brand, Mercedes-Benz has fully embraced electrification.
Just by keeping tabs on recent news, you will find that Mercedes-Benz’s “comprehensive electrification” cannot be stopped. Just recently at the Guangzhou Auto Show, Mercedes-Benz launched two new pure electric SUV models, the EQA and the EQB. But in fact, this is just the beginning of Mercedes-Benz’s “comprehensive electrification”.
The highlight is today, with the grand launch of the all-new EQS, the first large-scale pure electric luxury sedan based on the Electric Vehicle Architecture (EVA) platform, which leads the era with its pioneering luxury design, excellent electric-powered driving experience and safety, as well as its user-oriented technology and convenience, making it the well-deserved flagship model of Mercedes-Benz EQ.
As the final performance of the year, there is no doubt that Mercedes-Benz has poured in a great deal of focus and effort into the all-new EQS.
After all, Mercedes-Benz is an important benchmark in the automotive industry and a spokesperson for automotive luxury, and it is also equally professional and determined in the transition to electrification.
Injecting Technology into Luxury
Many times, people believe that the roles of technology and luxury have been reversed in the era of pure electric vehicles. But when visionary technology and heritage luxury experiences blend together, many times it becomes a yes or no question. After all, not all options should be “C” just by staying quiet.
However, the all-new EQS from Mercedes-Benz caters to two important options that consumers need: the heritage luxury of Mercedes-Benz and the electric vehicle technology that is developing in the new era.
From the exterior design and interior design of this flagship luxury vehicle, which is more than 5.2 meters long and has a wheelbase of more than 3.2 meters, you can clearly feel Mercedes-Benz’s stable and professional performance in terms of high quality and luxurious comfort.The Burmester® Berlin Surround Sound System inside the car, the refreshing and energizing functions, the beloved 64-color ambient lighting system offering 11 theme colors, as well as the hot stone massage effect, all maintain the top-level luxury standard that Mercedes-Benz has long been renowned for.
Even more impressive is the MBUX intelligent human-machine interaction system installed in the car. MBUX ultra-screen seamlessly integrates three screens to form a curved screen with a width of 1.41 meters, almost visually integrated. If you are familiar with the new force of carmakers, it is obvious that Mercedes-Benz is not the first brand to introduce a similar configuration. However, the difference lies in how Mercedes-Benz has long figured out how to apply this “giant screen.”
MBUX human-machine interaction system provides application support for this “giant screen.” Such support is not a simple function stack-up, but the applicability that has been carefully polished over a long period of time is the real core. MBUX intelligent human-machine interaction system has an 8-core CPU, 24GB memory, and a memory bandwidth of 46.4 GB per second.
As early as 2018, the first-generation product of the MBUX system was launched, and Mercedes-Benz has been constantly listening and analyzing user experience and feedback since then. 80% of user scenarios when using the system are related to navigation, media, and phonebook. Based on this, Mercedes-Benz strives to improve the usage priority of these functions and create an “zero-level interface” application UI logic.
The all-new EQS presents the most frequently used functions to users in the most concise and efficient way (without hierarchical menus). The advantages go far beyond this. The EQS is also equipped with up to 350 sensors of various types, serving as the sensory organs of various parts of the car. With the help of artificial intelligence with autonomous learning ability, the MBUX system utilizes these sensors to perceive vehicle information, including measuring the perception distance, speed, acceleration, lighting conditions, rainfall, temperature, seat usage, as well as the driver’s eyelid movements or passenger’s language.The user’s usage habits are transformed into suggestions through the MBUX intelligent human-machine interaction system, providing users with personalized suggestions for information entertainment, comfort, and vehicle functions. With the help of artificial intelligence, various other functions such as relaxation and stimulation are automatically provided to users when needed. In the “Relax and Refresh” mode, impressive and realistic auditory experiences are provided through soothing sound effects created in collaboration with natural acoustics expert Gordon Hempton, named “Forest Clearing”, “Ocean Waves”, and “Summer Rain”. In other Relax and Refresh modes, other senses are fully stimulated through ambient lighting and imagery.
The MBUX features extend beyond this. When encountering steep roads or common city speed reducers, the MBUX remembers the GPS location of the “Vehicle Lifting” function. If the vehicle approaches this GPS location again, MBUX suggests raising the vehicle’s chassis. The driver’s display screen is equipped with a camera, and facial recognition technology can be used for various assistance and comfort functions, including biometric authentication, attention assistance fatigue warning, and adjustment of the rear-view mirror to a preset position. The new EQS also comes with a fingerprint scanner for driver identification.
By now, you and I should share the same realization — that Mercedes-Benz has truly infused technology into the soul of the new EQS.
Breaking Through Luxurious Driving Experience with Electric Power
Despite changing times, the essence of a car is still to satisfy better driving needs. This is something that no one understands better than Mercedes-Benz, a company with a century of experience. This is also the core concept that the new EQS, the flagship model of Benz’s new luxury electric vehicle lineup, aims to present.
However, in the age of electrification, every design and configuration is strongly related to the driving mode and electric driving experience of pure electric cars. Designs must minimize air resistance, configurations must enhance range as much as possible without sacrificing driving performance, charging efficiency must be as high as possible, charging station layouts should be as reasonable and efficient as possible.
The new EQS features a “Bow Design”, with seamless design of the hood and wheel arches (as there is no engine) and the sloping rear design, the windward area is 2.51m2, effective air resistance area is as low as 0.5m2, and the coefficient of aerodynamic drag has dropped to as low as 0.20, making it the lowest coefficient of aerodynamic drag for a production car in the world.
We can also see that the new EQS with a high-capacity 111.8 kWh battery brings an ultra-long endurance range of 849 km under CLTC working conditions. With a charging power of 145 kW, the battery can be restored from 10% to 80% in just 37 minutes, which greatly alleviates the fear of running out of power.
The new EQS boasts a high-quality five-star charging service and a nationwide fast charging network covering over 320 cities and the “Ten Verticals and Ten Horizontals Two Rings” expressway, with over 365,000 public charging piles (including 185,000 fast charging piles) installed.
The goal of electric vehicles in this new era is to enable everyone to travel with ease and convenience. However, not every electric vehicle can provide a maximum rated power of 380 kW and a turning diameter of just 10.9 meters for a body over 5.2 meters long by using the technology of rear-wheel steering.
Mercedes-Benz wants every customer to find a luxury driving experience of the intelligent age with the help of technological power, including intelligent navigation distance limiting function, active steering function, avoidance steering auxiliary function, intelligent parking system, and other intelligent driving assistance technologies.
Not long ago, Mercedes-Benz became the world’s first automaker to receive international certification for a conditional L3 level automated driving system in Germany. Thanks to the deep fusion of multiple radars, sensors, and high-precision positioning systems, the powerful intelligent navigation system (Drive Pilot) can enable L3 level conditional automated driving mode at a maximum speed of 60 km/h on suitable German highways during traffic peaks or congestions.
As the flagship product of Mercedes-Benz pure electric vehicles, the new EQS launched this time is also equipped with many sensors, cameras, and radar devices (including one LIDAR, one long-range millimeter-wave radar, four corner radars, and twelve parking ultrasonic sensors, etc.). We believe that in the future, EQS will have the ability to lead users into the next era of intelligent travel, subject to legal permissions.
Conclusion
What is surprising is that the new EQS is still only the prelude of Mercedes-Benz.
At the IAA a few months ago, Mercedes-Benz released many electric vehicle models at once, including the EQB and EQE sedans, the AMG EQS, the Maybach EQS, and EQG. Perhaps these models will also come to us one after another in the near future.For top players like Mercedes-Benz in the automotive industry, it is hard to stop their amazing speed when they mobilize the entire company to sprint towards a certain goal. As they inherit a century-old history and follow the trend of innovation, it is believed that no consumer can resist the enthusiasm and determination of Mercedes-Benz.
The arrival of the brand new EQS has further enriched the Mercedes-Benz EQ product line and become an important milestone for Mercedes-Benz to move towards the “comprehensive electric” road. With abundant power, Mercedes-Benz has already “stepped hard” on the accelerator and “sprinted” at high speed!
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.