Okay, Elon, this is where it gets serious. The Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX is what folks who’ve been building automobiles for more than a century can do when they turn the might of their huge research and development budgets entirely to thinking about designing and engineering a better electric vehicle.
Mercedes-Benz says the Vision EQXX will travel more than 620 miles on a single charge. But here’s the thing: Unlike the current range kings of the EV world such as the Lucid Air Grand Touring (516 miles, according to the EPA) and the Tesla Model S Long Range (405, per the EPA) Mercedes says it’ll do so with a smaller battery pack—just under 100 kWh in capacity versus the Lucid’s 118-kWh pack and the Tesla’s 100-kWh pack.
That’s better than 6.2 miles per kWh, which would make the EQXX a third more efficient than the Lucid and 55 percent more efficient than the Tesla. This Mercedes changes the conversation around EVs away from today’s almost total focus on range as a function of battery capacity. In the EQXX, range is a function of a holistic approach to vehicle efficiency.
