Rumors that Mercedes was working on an electric gull wing was intriguing but having it confirmed is even better.
The gist is that we have been looking forward to seeing what Mercedes would do with the electric drive. Leave it to the car company to come out with a product only when it has been fully trialed, tested, confirmed and even refined, and yes, sometimes too much. Talks of Daimler chummying with Tesla Motors only fueled the hope that one day Mercedes would have an electric vehicle, EV. We were far from suspecting a supercar EV.
Electric Gull Wing. And this electric gull wing has enough performance to impress even the most blase. According to GreenCarCongress, the gull wing will have Tesla Roadster performance with a different platform. In this instance, it is closer to the beautiful Lightning GTS. Daimler got started as far back as 2006.
Technically Speaking. The gull wing is essentially a electric converted SLC AMG with four electric motors pushing 392 kW, or 526 hp. Its maximum torque is 880 Nm, 649 lb-ft and the 0 to 100 km/h, or 60mph will be around 4 second. While not adopting an in-wheel electric motor configuration as the Lightning GTS will have, the motors will be as close as possible to the wheels so as to lower anyunsprung weight. The Mercedes engineering shows itself in the adoption of a single transmission per axle, making this intelligent all-wheel-drive system to dynamically optimize power. The batteries will be from Deutsche Accumotive GmbH & Co. KG, a joint venture between Daimler AG and Evonik Industries AG.
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By now, you should be salivating reading this, so the big question now becomes... how much? And that is one that will have to be answered later, as Mercedes is not yet divulging it. It should be made available late 2010. Why is this electric Mercedes important? When a major automobile manufacturer dips its toes into the electric drive world, it is something worth considering. If the Germans were slow to adopt EVs, Mercedes could leap frog its competitors. Another thing to consider is that Mercedes rarely does things in an irrational way. We can expect the old firm to contribute to the maturity of the electric drive. News worth keeping an eye out for.
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