Mercedes SLS AMG E-CELL electric super sports car
The Mercedes SLS AMG E-CELL drive incorporates a liquid-cooled high-voltage lithium-ion battery featuring a modular design with an energy content of 48 kWh and a capacity of 40 Ah.The gullwing with electric drive is part of the company strategy entitled “AMG Performance 2015? With the SLS AMG E-CELL, Mercedes-AMG is providing a glimpse of its latest development project – a powerful and locally emission-free super sports carMercedes-AMG is accepting the challenges of motoring of the future: the SLS AMG E-CELL is evidence of the state-of-the-art development of an exciting electric super sports car featuring a zero-emission high-tech drive.
Power in the SLS AMG E-CELL is routed through four electric motors, one at each wheel. The SLS AMG E-CELL drive incorporates a liquid-cooled high-voltage lithium-ion battery featuring a modular design with an energy content of 48 kWh and a capacity of 40 Ah. The maximum electric load potential of the battery, which consists of 324 lithium-ion polymer cells, is 480 kW.
Two low-temperature cooling circuits ensure that the four electric motors and the power electronics are maintained at an even operating temperature.
The ceramic brake discs are 40% lighter in weight than the conventional, grey cast iron brake discs. This improves air resistance while reducing downforce.
The AMG instrument cluster and center console both feature a new design. The AMG Drive Unit, which is angled towards the driver, houses buttons for starting the motor, and the ESP functions, the AMG memory function and the extendable front splitter and rear spoiler.
We remain somewhat skeptical of electric cars, but we acknowledge that the latest prototypes are getting far more interesting. Recently, Mercedes invited us to Kristiansund, on the west coast of Norway, to drive the fully electric version of its gullwing SLS.
As in the E-Tron, power in the SLS AMG E-Cell is routed through four electric motors, one at each wheel. Switch to sport, and throttle response gets a bit sharper, and 60 percent of the power and torque become available. In sport plus, you get a super-aggressive throttle and the entire 526 hp. An additional mode, manual, acts like sport plus but switches off regenerative braking entirely.
If you have so far associated electric cars with ridiculous humming boxes on wheels, hang on. In the SLS E-Cell, getting from rest to 62 mph takes a claimed four seconds flat; 130 mph, fewer than 12 seconds. The SLS E-Cell offers four modes of regenerative braking in addition to being completely off in the manual powertrain setting, which leaves you “sailing” with minimal drivetrain drag. Unlike Tesla, AMG decided not to. AMG has developed an entirely new front axle—a pushrod-actuated setup—that replaces the regular SLS’s unequal-length control-arm design, and the steering is now electrohydraulic. Granted, this is a prototype, and as development progresses, it will benefit from torque vectoring, achieved by running the electric motors at different speeds.
Just like the regular SLS, the E-Cell is a big car, with a hood that seems to extend beyond the curvature of the planet. The E-Cell’s Achilles’ heel, unsurprisingly, is its range. This prototype carries a 48-kWh lithium-ion battery, but AMG hopes to fit the car with a 60-plus kWh battery pack when it becomes available to customers. The current claims are perhaps even conservative: After a sharply driven 60 miles, battery capacity was still about 30 percent. Having flogged the SLS E-Cell unchaperoned for some 60 miles over lightly trafficked country roads, we began to appreciate the car.
