Mercedes and the electric mobility

There are many fronts that the German manufacturer has opened in the quest to launch a range as wide and at the same time ensuring high levels of quality and satisfaction for the buyers. That is why they have signed agreements with manufacturers like Tesla, with the intention of exchanging knowledge and technology, and get a place in new markets.

To do so is designing a range of cars that cover virtually every segment, from the small Smart, Through the Class A, A version powered by a fuel cell, and even the supercar SLSWho will receive a spectacular development that will enable even better performance of the combustion engine version.


That is why we will conduct a review of their projects and so we shall see in what condition is each and its possibilities for a German landing in the world of electric cars until now taken over by the Japanese and American and the long shadow that begins to arrive from China.

Smart ED

We started this review with the smallest of the range, Smart EDOne of the first to be approved by the board of Daimler to start production and also one that best suits the urban characteristics of the first generation of electric cars are limited by the short range of their batteries forcing them to a life within cities, and this is where the Smart develops best of their small size.

This mount an engine with maximum power 30 kW, And a pair of 120 Nm available from zero revs, allowing you to reach a top speed limited to 100 km / hIn our opinion, more than enough. For its part, the battery pack has not been selected oficialemte but is expected to have a capacity of 16.5 kWh enough to cover half of 135 km with each load cycle as NEDCBut Daimler says that the final model could reach 200.

The release date is set for market middle of next year price and brand managers have only said that will be considerably higher than the model with internal combustion engine, so we can speculate on a figure above 20,000 euros.

Class E-Cell

The Class E-Cell is also a veteran in the electrical program Mercedes a few years ago and is testing a very suitable platform to accommodate the heavy and bulky batteries to the underside of the vehicle, opting for a sandwich design them, what keeps almost intact both in space for the occupants and the area allocated to the load with a generous 435 liters.

Will be manufactured at the plant that Mercedes has in the German city of Rastatt and although the tests are being carried out with a generous pack of lithium 36 kwh of capacityWhich, according to Mercedes are enough to cover over half 200 km with each load, although it is anticipated that the final version has a smaller pack.

The engine will have a Class-A rated 50 kW, 70 kW maximum, With a pair of 290 Nm available from zero revs, allowing you to reach a speed of 150 km / h and reach 100 km / h in 14 seconds.

His arrival is expected in late 2012 and so far nothing is known about their prices.

Class F-Cell B

Acronyms F-Cell assume that the model in question has an electrical system but instead of a battery that is powered by a fuel cell. In this case involves a different way compared to pure electric and technology that will face many challenges if you want to get a foothold in the market and thus cease to be always the future to become present.

Some of these problems focus on high price technology, very pr over pure electric, also the high cost of service stations, And its performance discussed inauspicious environments such as extreme cold. On the other hand, found only on the positive side of the scale, but both very important, aspect of fast reload that allows us to have great autonomy and power-ups like cars with combustion engine.

In this case the B-Class F-Cell opt for an engine 100 kWWith a torque 290 Nm, Which allows a maximum speed of 170 km / h. For its part, the hydrogen is stored in a reservoir 720 bar, Which provides a range according to the cycle NEDC no less than 385 km with each load. It has a lithium battery 1.4 kWh capacity, which has the same utility as a hybrid, that is, provide help in times of high demand for power while storing energy recovered by regenerative braking.

Is the date of sale? because so far it is unclear whether it will come out commercially, with the relentless push of lithium batteries every year to improve their performance while reducing weight and price, so that the fuel cell could be limited to a professional use.

In the next chapter will talk about the other members of the family Mercedes power, as the spectacular SLS E-CellWith its four wheel motors, the worker Vito E-Cell and even a model somewhat forgotten in recent time, E-Cell BlueZEROThe vision of an electric range extender Manufacturer Germany.