The Mercedes-Benz CLA EV set a brand new endurance report for close-to-production electrical automobiles.
A prototype of the upcoming battery-powered sedan drove 2,309 miles in 24 hours.
The earlier report was set in 2019 by a Porsche Taycan.
The upcoming Mercedes-Benz CLA all-electric sedan is shaping as much as be one of the crucial vital battery-powered automobiles in latest historical past. The German automaker went above and past with its method to effectivity and it exhibits.
With a claimed power effectivity of as much as 5.2 miles/kilowatt-hour, the brand-new CLA EV has the potential to topple the Lucid Air–which has a claimed effectivity of 5 miles/kWh–because the world’s best EV. It additionally packs all the most recent tech, together with 800-volt charging and a two-speed transmission, making it much more of a dialog starter.
However a bunch of numbers on a sheet of paper don’t imply a lot if the claims don’t maintain water in the true world. That’s why Mercedes-Benz put two CLA EV prototypes to the check on the famed Nardo high-speed monitor in southern Italy.
The end result? A brand new endurance world report.
One of many prototypes coated 2,309 miles in 24 hours, topping the earlier report set in 2019 when a Porsche Taycan drove 2,128 miles in 24 hours. This contains charging stops, after all. Due to its 800-volt traction battery and 320-kilowatt most charging price, the CLA EV prototype wanted to cease 40 occasions to recharge its battery.
Every cease took round 10 minutes, which is sufficient to get the automotive’s state of cost from 10% to 50%. That’s the equal of 186 miles or about 36 kilowatt-hours (the battery pack can maintain 85 kWh). Including all the things collectively, the automotive was stopped for a complete of six hours and 40 minutes to recharge. The typical pace was 96.2 miles per hour–together with charging stops–and the automotive’s 130 mph high pace was reached through the session.
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Mercedes-Benz
The gap coated by the record-breaking prototype is almost the identical as the space between Los Angeles and Cleveland.
The record-setting CLA prototype, which Mercedes-Benz claims is a close-to-production unit, began the 24-hour run with a full battery. Throughout the endurance check, the engineering crew intently monitored the ambient temperature and wind situations to change the charging technique in real-time. The air temperature ranged from 55.4 levels Fahrenheit at night time to 84.2 levels through the day.
Six drivers had been a part of the hassle–three for every of the prototypes–with three shift adjustments. That’s eight hours of driving for every of the drivers. The record-setting CLA EV was a rear-wheel drive model with a single, 268-horsepower motor that works along with a two-speed transmission. The road-going Mercedes-Benz CLA EV is due in late 2025 as a 2026 mannequin.
