BRIXWORTH, England — Mercedes-Benz has engaged its Method One workforce within the engineering course of to construct vastly extra environment friendly mass-market electrical automobiles, slashing improvement instances by 1 / 4 or extra because it bounce begins efforts to maintain tempo with Tesla.
F1 expertise has all the time ultimately bled over into mass-market automobiles. However Mercedes’ F1 collaboration to construct extra environment friendly EVs quicker is unprecedented as a result of it embeds that racing mindset and technological experience immediately in product improvement.
After a long time of management in combustion-engine expertise, legacy automakers resembling Mercedes have lagged Tesla in EVs. Mercedes’ F1 workforce may also help it get again within the race, mentioned Steven Merkt, head of transportation options at TE Connectivity, a serious provider.
“No person feels the stress greater than Mercedes to be innovation leaders right here,” Merkt mentioned. “They have to push it out or they’re not Mercedes.”
Final yr, Mercedes unveiled its EQXX idea automobile, a super-efficient EV able to a variety of greater than 1,200 km (745 miles), which was collectively developed with the automaker’s F1 workforce in England.
The EQXX took simply 18 months to develop, leaning on the F1 workforce’s expertise of working quickly to squeeze effectivity from engines and electrical motors, aerodynamics and rolling resistance, the corporate mentioned.
“We’ve an edge right here with Method One which others shouldn’t have,” Mercedes Chief Know-how Officer Markus Schaefer mentioned. “Tesla doesn’t have it. Different groups shouldn’t have it.”
Tesla didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Pace is ever extra necessary as a result of newer entrants, above all Tesla, can develop or tweak fashions much more rapidly than legacy automakers. Quick-moving Chinese language EV makers have reduce improvement time to a mean of two.5 years and are launching modern, cheaper fashions in Europe.
The necessity for velocity is coupled with a push amongst automakers to make EVs extra environment friendly and thereby scale back prices – by reducing weight, enhancing vary, and utilizing much less battery supplies already briefly provide.
Suppliers say effectivity is now baked into some EV contracts as automakers search to make their automobiles extra inexpensive.
“Effectivity is a key enabler to speed up adoption of EVs globally,” Schaefer mentioned.
Components of what Mercedes discovered from the EQXX will function in a brand new EV platform that may go into manufacturing in 2024, together with aerodynamic options, elements of the powertrain and the automobile’s software program system.
Schaefer mentioned making use of its F1 strategy, Mercedes has reduce new automobile improvement time from a mean of 58 months to go from the drafting board to mass manufacturing to “the low 40s.”
For spinoff fashions – comparable fashions constructed utilizing the identical platform – the goal is “the low 30s.”
The F1 engine workforce at Mercedes AMG Excessive Efficiency Powertrains (HPP) in Brixworth in central England is now engaged on at the very least half a dozen new tasks creating elements for mass-market Mercedes fashions – batteries, inverters and new generations of motors, Schaefer mentioned.
HPP superior expertise director Adam Allsopp mentioned he took the decision from Mercedes headquarters in Stuttgart that kickstarted the EQXX challenge standing in a former cowshed whereas on vacation on the Isle of Wight in August 2020. It got here with a transparent, powerful problem – construct an EV able to driving 1,000 km on a single cost.
F1 gasoline limits imposed in 2014 compelled HPP to develop engines and vehicles that squeeze essentially the most out of each drop and to “chase each single watt of loss” from two electrical motors, Allsopp mentioned.
“A basic a part of who we’re is all the time preparing for the subsequent race,” Allsopp mentioned.
Making use of that racing mindset, F1 engineers in Brixworth and close by Brackley labored with a workforce in Stuttgart to supply the EQXX – utilizing a versatile strategy that allowed the workforce to maneuver ahead with improvement earlier than the EV’s batteries have been prepared after which adapt plans after they have been.
The EQXX featured a battery pack half the scale of Mercedes’ flagship EQS SUV, compact electronics {hardware} and a brand new working system. Coupled with glossy aerodynamics, that allowed it to drive greater than 1,200 km from Stuttgart to Silverstone in England on a single cost, spending 8.3 kilowatt hours of power per 100 km.
By comparability, Tesla says its long-range Mannequin 3 spends 16 kWh per 100 km.
To take care of velocity for bringing components of the EQXX to mass manufacturing in 2024 on its new compact Mercedes Modular Structure (MMA) automobile platform, the automaker has developed a digital mannequin of its plant in Rastatt – the identical automobile will even be in-built Hungary and China – to “simulate the meeting course of,” and thus speed up the bodily changeover of the plant to construct the brand new EVs, CTO Schaefer mentioned.
Historically, automakers have performed “mid-life” upgrades on automobile fashions after three or 4 years, however Schaefer mentioned “updates to EVs can be far more frequent.”
Others within the auto business are additionally ramping up the race for velocity and effectivity.
Ford has introduced plans to comply with Mercedes with a return to F1 racing in 2026, offering “an extremely cost-effective platform to innovate, share concepts and applied sciences,” CEO Jim Farley mentioned in February.
And Volkswagen has mentioned it goals to chop its time to marketplace for new Chinese language fashions from 4 years to nearer to the Chinese language 2.5-year common, partly by localizing extra analysis and improvement.
Automakers are so centered on effectivity some now embody penalties for suppliers who fail to satisfy effectivity targets, mentioned Liam Butterworth, CEO of provider Dowlais, whose sideshafts are utilized in 9 of the world’s high ten promoting EVs.
OneD Battery Sciences provides silicon to EV battery anodes that reduce weight, scale back price and cost batteries quicker. Basic Motors has invested within the Palo Alto, California-based firm and is researching utilizing the expertise within the U.S. automaker’s Ultium batteries, each corporations mentioned.
OneD CEO Vincent Pluvinage mentioned that through the second quarter the corporate will announce extra agreements with automakers in search of cheaper, extra environment friendly EVs. He declined to offer additional particulars of the offers.
“Rising efficiency and decreasing prices is the secret,” Pluvinage mentioned. “When you have a expertise that works however you’re asking a premium, carmakers are not .”
Up to now, automakers have added extra batteries to automobiles to extend EV vary, exacerbating a looming scarcity of uncooked supplies resembling lithium and cobalt. However HPP’s Allsopp mentioned making EVs extra environment friendly permits automakers to make use of smaller batteries, making them each greener and cheaper.
“Simply throwing batteries at one thing shouldn’t be an clever answer,” Allsopp mentioned. “Should you discover intelligent methods to realize the identical vary: it is higher for patrons, carmakers and the planet.”