As electric cars continue to gain ground, prospective buyers all share the same concern: Range. The average commuter suddenly becomes a habitual road tripper when confronted with the prospect of electric power, driving from Alaska to Florida and back every weekend to visit the family and unable to stomach the idea of not being able to drive thousands of miles on a whim. Well, range-anxious buyers, Mercedes has put the ball in your court with a new test — the company's Concept AMG GT XX just drove
25,000 miles in under eight days, with charging stops included.
Now, is this test a perfect analogue for real life? Absolutely not. The Benz didn't actually circumnavigate the equator for 7 days, 14 hours, 9 minutes, and 52 seconds, but instead lapped Italy's Nardo Circuit 3,177 times at an average of 3,293 miles per day. This meant the car was largely able to sit at 186 miles per hour, a speed Mercedes engineers determined offered the best ratio of distance covered to number of charge stops needed, and the Mercedes team had access to extremely high-powered chargers that could dole out 850 kW of power, more than double the fastest chargers you're likely to see outside your local mall.
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Not The Most Applicable To Real Life, But A Neat Test
Without that kind of ultra-fast charging, you're unlikely to achieve the charge speeds that led Mercedes to the 25 records the company claims to have set in this endeavor, which included setting the record for distance driven by an EV in 24 hours — the GT XX covered 3,404 miles, crushing the previous record set by the XPeng P7 just a week and a half ago by almost 1,000 miles. Mercedes says that five minutes of charging at 850 kW can add 250 miles of range in the GT XX, and a pit crew handled both the charges and tire changes.
Two identical cars ran the distance simultaneously, crossing the finish line just 15.5 miles apart, and both are a lot closer to production than you might think. As the EQ XX used the powertrain now found in the production CLA EV, the GT XX concept's AMG.EA platform, battery pack and trio of axial flux "pancake" motors are all taken from the upcoming AMG GT EV. Mercedes claims its pancake motors are far lighter and more compact than traditional radial flux motors, allowing better packaging efficiency. Those motors are fed by a new 800-volt battery pack for the brand, one that uses nickel-cadmium-magnesium-aluminum chemistry like GM's Ultium batteries.
Testing over more than seven full days required a slew of drivers to keep both cars humming at 186 miles per hour. Mercedes had 17 drivers on deck for the test, including F1 driver George Russell, who each did two-hour shifts. You may not have Russell at your beck and call, the same way you likely don't have access to 850 kW fast charging, but you may soon be able to get the same efficiency Mercedes did — the production GT EV could debut in just a few months, and other AMG EVs will share its technology. Some folks may never lose their range anxiety, but new tech in cars like the Concept AMG GT XX shows they're fighting a losing battle.
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