It’s troublesome to overstate the significance of the (breathes) Mercedes-Benz GLC with EQ Expertise.
It’s all within the long-winded title – this addition to the Mercedes-Benz lineup is the primary of the three-pointed star’s new era of electrical automobiles.
The electrical GLC debuts an all-new electrical car structure dubbed MB.EA that may in the end underpin electrical variations of the next-generation C-Class, E-Class, and S-Class sedans, in addition to electrical GLE and GLS SUVs.
The extremely versatile MB.EA toolkit contains extra highly effective and environment friendly e-motors developed in-house by Mercedes-Benz, an 800V electrical structure that permits for hyper-fast charging, and new battery chemistries that promise decrease price and longer vary.
MB.EA is a software-defined car structure, with Mercedes-Benz’s new MB.OS working system overseeing all car features, and it may be geared up to ship Stage 3 autonomous driving functionality.
Aside from its mannequin title and market positioning, the electric-powered GLC shares little with its inner combustion-engined sibling.
Each exterior panel is totally different; the sportier roofline reportedly serving to the Mercedes SUV obtain an impressively low drag co-efficient of simply 0.24. The redesigned inside of the top-spec variations is dominated by a display screen that stretches throughout the sprint from A-pillar to A-pillar.
Although Benz insiders have been tight-lipped on lots of the finer particulars of the electrical GLC prototype we drove on the snowy roads and tracks close to Mercedes-Benz’s winter take a look at centre in Arjeplog, Sweden, engineers confirmed to CarExpert its wheelbase is 129mm longer than that of its combustion-powered sibling. Having sat within the again seat, we will affirm most of that further size has gone into rear passenger room – it’s very spacious again there.
Relying on market, the GLC EV will probably be obtainable in single-motor rear-wheel drive and dual-motor all-wheel drive with system outputs of as much as 670hp (500kW) – which co-incidentally matches the facility produced by the insanely advanced plug-in hybrid Mercedes-AMG GLC63 S E Efficiency.
Batteries vary from a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) unit that’s more likely to ship a WLTP-rated vary of simply over 500km, to a 94.5kWh nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) battery that reinforces the WLTP vary to greater than 800km.
This battery’s extremely environment friendly silicon carbide anodes and the 800V electrical structure additionally permit cost charges of as much as 320kW, which imply it may be topped as much as give 400km extra vary in as little as quarter-hour.
The prototype we drove in Sweden was moderately shut to what’s more likely to be the top-spec, non-AMG GLC 4Matic with EQ Expertise. Its dual-motor powertrain had a system output of 360kW, the 94.5kWh battery, air suspension, and rear-wheel steering driving on 20-inch wheels shod with Pirelli Winter 2 tires (235/50 entrance and 265/45 rear).
You anticipate electrical automobiles to be quiet, however the electrical GLC 4Matic wafts down the highway like a limousine. It’s impressively silent – highway and wind noise are very effectively suppressed, and there’s not even a touch of a whine from the e-motors. The steering is gentle and direct, enabling you to position the Benz on the highway with easy accuracy.
The GLC with EQ Expertise has the brand new Mercedes-Benz digital brake management system, a classy brake-by-wire setup which decouples the brake pedal from the mechanical brake system except there’s an digital glitch, by which case a valve permits full hydraulic braking.
As with most EV brake programs, braking as much as 0.3g is finished completely by regen.
The handover from regen to mechanical braking beneath heavy braking completely seamless, and the brand new brake system permits regen to happen even when the ABS kicks in. What’s extra, the system’s software program delivers a assured and consistent-feeling brake pedal beneath all circumstances.
4 ranges of lift-off regen can be found: D Auto, which lets the electrical GLC’s software program optimise regen ranges; D+, which permits it to coast; D, which coasts like an inner combustion engine car; and D-, which permits one-pedal driving and can even deliver the Mercedes to a halt on an icy downhill. Toggling between regen modes is achieved by pushing or pulling the column-mounted gear choice lever.
The e-motors within the GLC EV are each completely excited magnet models, the Mercedes-developed one on the rear axle geared up with a two-speed transmission that allows increased highway speeds.
Some carmakers use much less highly effective magnet-free asynchronous motors on the entrance axle of their dual-motor powertrains as a result of they spin extra freely beneath gentle hundreds – Mercedes will get round this by actively decoupling the entrance e-motor when it’s not wanted.
In Consolation mode, the rear wheels deal with 100 per cent of the torque; a canine clutch partaking the entrance motor when the powertrain senses exhausting acceleration or a lack of traction, or when the entrance motor is required for regen.
Choosing Sport mode, which is finished through a button on the centre console that forces you to toggle by way of all of the modes till you get the one you need, units up a 33:67 front-rear torque break up. Terrain mode ups that to 50:50 for higher off-road traction.
It took a fraction of a second for the entrance wheels to hook up beneath exhausting acceleration on snowy roads in Consolation mode. In Sport mode, entrance axle response was rapid.
No matter mode, the GLC electrical effortlessly tackled snowy mountain tracks, highlighting the pace and precision with which torque from e-motors could be modulated to ship most traction. With 360kW on faucet, it additionally felt pleasantly punchy on the highway.
At first acquaintance, the Mercedes-Benz GLC with EQ Expertise makes a greater GLC than the present combustion-engined mannequin, which final yr was the best-selling Mercedes-Benz on the planet. It’s a lot smoother and far quieter, roomier inside, and extra effortlessly succesful each on and off the highway.
The manufacturing model of the GLC with EQ Expertise will probably be formally unveiled on the IAA Mobility Present in Munich this September.
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