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Mercedes-Benz recently held a workshop in its home town of Stuttgart, Germany where it revealed a host of technology that its ‘futurists’ had been working on over recent months.
One such innovation is a new kind of solar paint that the company says could generate enough electricity for an EV to cover more than 12,000 km (around 7,455 miles) per year under the right conditions.
The ‘solar modules’ measure just 5 micrometers wide – significantly thinner than a human hair – and weigh just 50g per square meter. They can be applied to the bodywork of electric vehicles in a “wafer-thin layer of paste”, according to the marque.
With an efficiency level of 20%, researchers suggest that a mid-sized SUV with a surface area of around 11 square meters would be enough to generate the previously mentioned additional mileage in somewhere sunny, like Los Angeles.
The VISION EQXX is a solar power plant of its own. Its ultra-thin roof panels feed the battery system for up to 25 kilometers of extra range.#MercedesBenz #VISIONEQXX pic.twitter.com/m1tKwPirMc
— Mercedes-Benz (@MercedesBenz) April 9, 2022
Engineers at Mercedes-Benz analysed the daily driving habits of EV owners in Stuttgart, Germany, and found they cover an average of 52km (around 32 miles) a day. Around 62% of this distance would be covered using solar energy, the company says, despite the often poor weather conditions.
Better still, customers in Los Angeles could cover 100% of their driving distance on average by solar energy. Any surplus achieved could be fed directly into the home network via bidirectional charging.
Mercedes has already experienced the benefits of solar power with its record-breaking EQXX concept vehicle – a rolling laboratory that has driven over 1,000km (620 miles) on a single charge of its battery.
With relatively small solar panels mounted to the roof, those working close to the project say that the sun’s energy accounted for around 30km (18 miles) of additional range during its long distance record attempts.
Mercedes Reinvents Brakes For EVs, Puts Them Inside The Drive Unit – very smart! https://t.co/Xgyj6k7K5u
— Dr. Andy Palmer (@AndyatAuto) November 23, 2024
In addition to the photovoltaic paints, the brand says it is also working on more energy efficient EV braking systems that would effectively eliminate particle emissions caused by standard brake pads and discs.
Rather than reside inside the wheel, Mercedes’ innovation is integrated into the electric drive unit at the front or rear axle. This would allow for the use of a significantly lighter wheel/tyre combination, as well as fully enclosed rims for optimised aerodynamics, as openings for brake cooling would no longer be required.
