And as it turns out, the company held true to its word. Today, the German brand announced that its concept car successfully completed a long-range test of 1,008km (626 miles) in real-world conditions. The EV traveled across various European cities, starting in Germany, then on to Italy and Switzerland, before arriving at its final destination, the town port of Cassis in the French Riviera. The entire trip lasted 12 hours with an average speed of 87.4km/h. To test the Vision EQXX’s performance, Mercedes chose a challenging route including regular traffic roads, highways, and mountains. This was combined with various weather conditions, ranging from 3 to 8 degrees Celsius. At the end of the journey, the vehicle had a remaining range of around 140km (87 miles). That’s more than enough juice for a ride to the nearest charging station to fill up for the drive back. The company attributes this impressive performance to the car’s “record-breaking low” average energy consumption: 8.7kWh per 100km. For reference, the average energy consumption of EVs is around 21kWh per 100km. To deliver this result, Mercedes strived to improve energy efficiency to the maximum. Among other features, the vehicle boasts a lightweight and aerodynamic design, low drag and rolling resistance, and an F1-developed electric drive unit. It’s also notable that the Vision EQXX has an integrated solar roof, which adds up to 25 kilometers on a 1,000km journey.
Where does this leave us?
To curb our enthusiasm a little, the Vision EQXX is a concept prototype vehicle, which means that it’s not guaranteed that these numbers will hold in a production version we can actually buy. Nevertheless, its successful journey marks an important milestone in the EV industry, and it’s very likely that Mercedes will use a number of the car’s technological advancements in its future lineup. Plus, the German automaker isn’t the only one focusing on developing long-range EVs. For instance, the recently unveiled Fresco XL boasts similar 1,000km range claims, the upcoming Lucid Air promises 873km (542 miles) on a single charge, and the Tesla Model S Long Range comes with approximately 600km (373 miles) of juice. This makes me very optimistic that range anxiety will soon be a thing of the past.
