Automotive Engineering - April 2024 - 13

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single- or dual-motor layouts.
The company said the CLA Class
Concept's permanent-magnet traction
motor borrows from the technology
shown in the hyper-efficient Vision
EQXX Concept; its motor makes virtually
no use of rare-earth minerals. In the CLA
Class Concept, the single rear-axle motor
makes 235 hp, but also is coupled with a
2-speed gearbox, which apparently
helps to achieve the 750-km (466-mi)
WLTP-cycle maximum driving range the
company quoted when it first revealed
the CLA Class Concept in fall 2023.
" The e-drive is something which we
will roll out then to our EVs, especially
from the motors, " Starzynski continued.
" The motors and the battery are going
to be completely scalable. " More efficiency
also is achieved with the platform's
800-volt architecture. He added
that axial-flux traction motors will, at
least for now, remain the exclusive
province of AMG performance models,
but in the future axial-flux motors may
be used when a blend of performance
and efficiency is appropriate.
Charging education
" We are doing a lot- not only in the
U.S., but especially here - to educate
people on the charging topic. He said
the U.S. is a patchwork of charging services
that invariably is confusing to a
new EV customer. " It's even more complicated
in Europe, " Starzynski asserted.
" We made a decision, 'Okay, we have
to go our own way now.' He mentioned
that Mercedes-Benz recently inaugurated
the $1 billion Ionna network with six other
automaker partners " and obviously we're
adopting or offering the Tesla charging
network. So, we're basically now using
the entire infrastructure to just give every
opportunity to a customer to charge the
most convenient way.
" We conquested a lot of customers
- which have decided to go the EV
route a couple of years ago - back to
the brand, " Starzynski continued. " And
that was the main purpose; the main
purpose was not to take S-Class customers
to the EQS. Basically, take and
conquest other customers to Mercedes.
So this is a big success, especially in the
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He also mentioned North America's
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obviously what we are doing is basically
helping them to understand how electric
mobility works. "
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Automotive Engineering - April 2024

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