The Mercedes Vision EQXX has officially raised the bar (again) for electric car range in 2022.
The "road-legal research prototype" – which is marketing speak for concept car – recently broke its own endurance record after traveling an almighty 747 miles (1,202 km) on a single charge from Stuttgart to Silverstone racing circuit in the United Kingdom.
The premium automaker had previously squeezed a market-leading 626 miles (1,008 km) out of its Vision EQXX electric vehicle (EV) during a two-day journey between Germany and France, but the car’s latest range record sets an even more impressive benchmark for Mercedes and other EV manufacturers to aim for in the coming years.
The Vision EQXX was first unveiled at CES 2022 as a project designed to "explore new frontiers of efficiency” for Mercedes, but despite being a concept vehicle on paper, the car comes impressively close to being a full-blown production model.
Crucially, it features a scaled-back version of the battery pack found in the Mercedes EQS – one reduced in physical size and weight by 50% and 30%, respectively – which focuses on delivering range over power.
As such, the Vision EQXX can only muster an uninspiring 0-62mph (0-100km/h) acceleration time of 7 seconds and a top speed of around 87mph (140km/h) – but its 1200km range figure represents twice that of a Tesla Model S using the same amount of energy.
We spent some time with the Mercedes EQXX at this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed, and we'll be publishing a longer feature on how the concept emerged soon – but there’s a palpable sense of pride within the Mercedes camp around the remarkable distance achieved by the brand's ambitious EV project.
Impressively, the Vision EQXX’s most recent run was also conducted in much warmer conditions – around 30C – suggesting that an alternative, less-demanding route may have resulted in an even greater range figure.
While Mercedes isn’t rolling out the EQXX as a production car any time soon – company insiders explained to TechRadar that making it road-ready would have taken years, where this project was conceived and unleashed in just 18 months – consumers can expect a variation of its battery technology to feature in upcoming Mercedes EVs (and we’re pretty sure something looking close to this hyper-efficient vehicle will hit the roads in the future).
In the short term, the automaker will add a little more weight (read: power) to the battery packs of its next production-ready models, though it’s a sure bet that the EQXX’s industry-leading range will remain at the forefront of Mercedes’ thinking as it strives to go all-electric by 2030.
