Mercedes SLS AMG Electric Drive: Driven
Chris goes sideways in an SLS - business as usual? Not when it's an electric one
But the limitations of the Tesla were the limitations of the car on which it was based, the Lotus Elise.
Different modes have a dramatic effect
The SLS Electric Drive will go into production in May and the first customers will take delivery in July. The car has a claimed 740hp, 737lb ft of torque and a top speed limited to 155mph.
Same but (very) different
This is not an electric car like the others I've come across. The bodywork looks to be stock SLS but the carbon backbone chassis underneath houses twelve battery modules with 72 cells. And this is where we call need to start using a new vocabulary - that of the fast electric car. It has an energy content of 60 kilowatt hours and can withstand an electric load of 600 kilowatts. To my petrol-addled ears this description makes it sound like an especially potent pair of loudspeakers, but attention is regained once again by the claim of 0-62mph in 3.9 seconds.
There's a lot to take in and get your head around
Mercedes claims the car will manage 175 miles on a full charge if driven carefully and that 125 miles could be expected if you use some more of that torque. Computer simulations show that the car would run two full laps of the Nordschleife flat-out, but not complete a third. The target lap time is under eight minutes - which is punchy give the car weighs 2,200kg. The batteries alone weigh 548kg.
Early adopters
This is of course a rolling showcase for future technologies as much as a sports car to stand comparison against fossil powered equivalents. It is the very cutting-edge of battery, motor and torque-vectoring technology and yet in terms of kerbweight, range and cost (nearly £400K) it remains uncompetitive with its immediate rivals in the sector.
They're looking at an eight-minute 'ring lap
Comfort gives way to Sport mode, which gives a tighter chassis response through the torque vectoring system and sharper steering The headlines are all about the SLS's electric powertrain, but the chassis systems are just as impressive and certainly more pertinent to the way cars will be engineered in the near future.
No V8 but the numbers come up just as fast
Because each wheel has its own motor and gearbox the car can accurately control individual wheel speed in any situation, and this means the chassis team can programme all manner of chassis behaviour, feel and character into the car. So whereas a conventional sports car chassis offers different levels of electronic intervention and perhaps damper stiffness, the SLS feels profoundly different in Comfort than it does in Sport Plus. The steering, power delivery and grip front-to-rear seem to belong to two completely different cars.
Sport Plus is the mode you really want. Full power, full torque, 155mph and slip angles: this car will paint black lines in the dry. It hides its mass very well because the centre of gravity is low and in the centre of the car. The standard SLS Michelins tend to let go at the front first, but the torque-vectoring gamely tries to keep everything neutral - the only problem being that your inputs to trim the car's line sometimes conflict with the computer's. But you quickly learn to adapt to what it wants and doesn't want. And then it dawns on you that you're driving an electric car very, very fast. The carbon ceramic discs that felt supreme in the 1,650kg standard car are at their absolute limit in this one.
No V8? No problem
Switch the traction control off and it's a monster. I mainly drove it in the wet and you could pull monstrous slides - a completely surreal experience with zero engine noise. Straightening the car back into line after the slide was challenging because the computer wants to get involved, but again you learn to adapt.
As for battery life - well, we hooned about using all the performance for an hour and consumed around 65 per cent of the charge. I didn't expect it to last that long. Based on that the 125-claimed range in normal driving seems perfectly achievable, driven slowly that rises to around 175 miles.
I still can't believe that Mercedes AMG has delivered on the promise with this car. It will go into production in May and will cost around £400K. That is crazy money for most of us, but it previews what will be possible very soon. It is the fastest electric car ever made and it happens to offer all the comfort, practicality and style of an SLS. It's unlike anything I've driven before and it left me grinning like a child. Electric cars shouldn't do that.
MERCEDES SLS AMG ELECTRIC DRIVE
Engine: 4x electric motors, 72-cell lithium-ion 60kwh battery
Transmission: One per axle
Power (hp): 740 (combined)
Torque (lb ft): 649 (combined)
0-62mph: 3.9sec
Top speed: 155mph (limited)
Weight: c. 2,200kg
Range: c. 155miles
CO2: 0g/km
Price: c. £400K
But at £400k, I just don't get who might want to buy one apart from eccentric, car mad, environmentalists (if there are such a thing) or Hollywood A listers for PR reasons. At least the small, slow, cr*p electric city cars have a point driving around said small city, however one assumes no-one will buy the electric SLS for that
But no matter how good all of the things above are and despite the real world range as tested being more impressive than many of us, including CH, would have expected, what on earth do you do when the charge runs out ? What about if you are caught out unexpectedly (i.e. away from home) when the charge runs out ? How long does it take to charge ? How do you do a road trip ? As I say, why would anyone buy one ?
I also don't see how a 2.2 ton car with 548kg giant batteries (which must be incredibly environmentally unfriendly to make and then to charge thru ultimately, predominantly coal fired power stations) is greener than a small, light, slow powered petrol engine car. Or why we aren't being encouraged to run our cars for longer, which ultimately must be less damaging than constantly buying new cars which pollute the environment far more in their production than slightly older less CO2 friendly cars being run for longer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQ8T96u_lw0
Portimao onboard Mercedes SLS AMG "World Challenge" Spec with Olly Bryant.
It goes without saying Olli is one of my fav drivers!
But at £400k, I just don't get who might want to buy one apart from eccentric, car mad, environmentalists (if there are such a thing) or Hollywood A listers for PR reasons. At least the small, slow, cr*p electric city cars have a point driving around said small city, however one assumes no-one will buy the electric SLS for that
But no matter how good all of the things above are and despite the real world range as tested being more impressive than many of us, including CH, would have expected, what on earth do you do when the charge runs out ? What about if you are caught out unexpectedly (i.e. away from home) when the charge runs out ? How long does it take to charge ? How do you do a road trip ? As I say, why would anyone buy one ?
I also don't see how a 2.2 ton car with 548kg giant batteries (which must be incredibly environmentally unfriendly to make and then to charge thru ultimately, predominantly coal fired power stations) is greener than a small, light, slow powered petrol engine car. Or why we aren't being encouraged to run our cars for longer, which ultimately must be less damaging than constantly buying new cars which pollute the environment far more in their production than slightly older less CO2 friendly cars being run for longer
I s'pose you could carry a small generator for "emergencies" - hmmm, isn't that a Hybrid?
Over the next few years you can picture people knocking on a strangers door with a plug in their hand!
I think it looks awesome. Thanks Chris for giving it an unbiassed review too (apart from the speakers bit which I can forgive you for.)
I'm really pleased that this car has been made too-It shows what can be done and its very exciting. Its also so clean that you could park it in your living room! Every car lover would like to do that. There would be no nasty fuel/gas to leak out and no oil to drip on your carpet.
Okay Chris, you need to get in touch with Mercedes Finance and get your self a £400k lease purchase agreement on one of these babies. Then you can run one long term and tell us all about it! Also obviously talk them into tricking it out with some of the body kit from the SLS GT3 racer.
We can no more generate power/dig-up enough rare materials for batteries than we can dig-up oil - electric cars are just moving pollution (which is OK because it makes it easier to control) and changing the supply-chain a bit - they're no more sustainable long-term and it's hard to see them ever replacing IC for enthusiast cars...
Car manufacturers resisted electric power for a long time - I suspect their interest now is more in taking some subsidies and avoiding some taxes rather than actually finding a sustainable solution to their problems.
Last year, for the first time in history, less fuel was used in the UK than in the year before. That is some progress of course - but it's nowhere near enough.
Things like this are showcases - Tesla/Fisker is praying enough people feel guilty enough to buy their cars - everyone else is just praying no-one notices it's just a blind surely?
But the electrics are coming, make no mistake, because the Tesla Model S has shown how it should be done. Same performance as the Merc (Better then an F10 M5!), 4 seats and a quarter of the price and you can at least drive for half a day before charging.
Now, if we could only get as many re-charging stations as there are petrol stations it would be a no brainer!
But given that you can charge at home and probably at work you are already covered for the vast majority of driving.
Hmm, maybe you could force all petrol stations to also setup charging points...
But they still need to sort out the range, charging time, availability of charging sockets, price and battery lifetime before they become a mass market product.
So I take it that this kind of thing is what people meant when they said that Colin McRae was better suited to the Impreza than later on in his career because he kept fighting the computers?We can no more generate power/dig-up enough rare materials for batteries than we can dig-up oil - electric cars are just moving pollution (which is OK because it makes it easier to control) and changing the supply-chain a bit - they're no more sustainable long-term and it's hard to see them ever replacing IC for enthusiast cars...
Car manufacturers resisted electric power for a long time - I suspect their interest now is more in taking some subsidies and avoiding some taxes rather than actually finding a sustainable solution to their problems.
Last year, for the first time in history, less fuel was used in the UK than in the year before. That is some progress of course - but it's nowhere near enough.
Things like this are showcases - Tesla/Fisker is praying enough people feel guilty enough to buy their cars - everyone else is just praying no-one notices it's just a blind surely?
One that has been promising just this for a good few years is EESTOR . For a long time general opinion said they were never going to be able to deliver but a recent independent test suggests they might actually be able to come good. But there are others anyway.
I feel confident that someone will make a huge leap in battery technology in the next few years. By then the big manufacturers will have the rest of the technology ready to drop the new batteries in to.
Then all we need is nuclear fusion to be nailed and we're laughing.
How hard can it be? :-)
AMG could make a car out of cheese - or apples (the local produce where they're based?) - but that's not the sort of supercar we want, is it?
Right now we don't have a sustainable alternative for petrol/diesel - biofuels aren't it, electric power is screwed by the weight and cost of batteries and hydrogen is still 'pie in the sky'.
All these cars are is a distraction - a "look here - a fluffy bunny" trick - we shouldn't buy into it.
Ideally, as petrol heads, our best tack is to push people into little 3 cylinder diesels so we can keep driving V8s and V12s with impunity - just tell them how many bunnies they're saving on the windscreen...
DON'T get them started on electric cars - there are few enough petrol stations as it is!!
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