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Look on the sprint of a Mercedes-Benz G-Class and also you’ll discover three buttons. Every one locks a diff – rear, centre, and entrance – for when the going actually will get robust. Even the thundering, AMG-tweaked G63 has them.
The Mercedes-Benz EQG has three buttons on the sprint, too, however none of them has something to do with a differential; as a result of the EQG doesn’t have any differentials. As a substitute, this battery-powered G-Class has 4 electrical motors, one driving every wheel.
Urgent the centre button on the EQG’s sprint selects low vary, courtesy of a discount gear system on the output shaft of every motor. Urgent the left button permits you to take the EQG for a spin – actually.
Maintain within the left or proper paddle on the steering wheel, relying on which path you wish to go, and punch the accelerator.
The EQG will rotate on the spot, reworking right into a 2800kg whirling dervish that may depart you slack-jawed and dizzy. Carry off the accelerator and the EQG obediently involves a halt, rocking gently on its springs, having travelled no additional ahead or backwards from its unique beginning place.
Mercedes-Benz G-Class chief engineer, Fabian Schossau, admits he’s not completely positive whether or not the “G-Flip” – because it’s known as – has a sensible software. However as a celebration trick that demonstrates the extraordinary functionality of the EQG’s powertrain, it’s actually a showstopper.
Not like the EQS and EQE SUVs, the EQG; scheduled to debut in 2024, isn’t constructed on a model of Mercedes-Benz’s versatile EVA2 electrical car structure. Reasonably, the EQG is a bit like a kind of traditional Porsche 911s, Ford Mustangs or Land Rovers retrofitted with electrical powertrains, with all of the EV {hardware} packaged below iconic sheet metallic.
The old-school separate chassis that underpins the G-Class makes the high-tech EV powertrain viable. With the inner combustion {hardware} eliminated, the realm between the axles and contained in the body rails offers a pure location wherein to bundle and defend a big battery, and there’s room at both finish for e-motors.
The body has been strengthened to cut back flex and the battery – which has been waterproofed to make sure the EQG has the identical wading functionality because the common G-Class – is protected by a high-tech composite panel that stretches between the axles.
Just like the combustion-powered G-Class, the EQG has a multi-link impartial entrance axle, and a non-independent axle on the rear.
Having an e-motor energy every wheel is easy with an all-independent suspension setup, however combining a pair of e-motors with a non-independent rear axle required some lateral considering. Finding the motors on the axle would have added an excessive amount of unsprung weight.
The answer was an engineering idea virtually as outdated because the automotive: The De Dion axle, which dates to about 1894. The De Dion design contains a inflexible tube connecting the wheel hubs on both aspect of the automotive, so it behaves like a stable axle, however the drive to every wheel is by way of separate half-shafts with common joints on both finish.
This permits the EQG’s rear e-motors to be bolted securely to the chassis whereas the axle delivers the articulation wanted for final off-road efficiency.
Just like the common G-Class, the EQG has three off-road drive modes; Path, Rock, and Sand, and rolls on metal springs with adaptive dampers. The 2 prototypes used for our experience alongside steep, rocky trails close to Perpignan within the south of France had Falken Wildpeak A/T 265/60 tires on 18-inch alloy wheels.
The EQG was envisioned as a four-motor EV from the outset, and never simply so it might spin like a prime for clickbait movies. As each severe off-roader is aware of, the trick to negotiating excessive terrain is sustaining traction, and which means controlling the torque on the wheels.
A four-motor EV drivetrain permits the torque going to every wheel to be independently managed below all situations, and the EQG’s low-range system, which presents roughly a two-to-one discount in gearing, makes that management much more exact in excessive terrain.
Low-range permits a characteristic known as Creeper Mode, a type of low-speed cruise management. There are three settings: D- which restricts pace to about 2-3km/h; D which ups it to between 5-6km/h; and D+ which supplies a most of 8km/h.
Switching between the settings is completed by clicking the paddles on the steering wheel which can be usually used for manually shifting the nine-speed computerized within the combustion engined G-Class.
In low-range you may really feel the precision within the drivetrain, the management at every wheel, even from the passenger seat.
At occasions, on steep ascents with high-articulation occasions, the EQG would virtually come to a halt because the motor at every wheel gently ramped up its torque output proper to the restrict of adhesion. However whereas every motor is working independently, all 4 are additionally working in unison to maintain the EQG transferring.
The result’s the EQG has demonstrably higher traction within the tough stuff than any inside combustion-engined off-roader, even ones with three lockable diffs just like the G-Class. What’s extra, the software program means the four-motor setup delivers all some great benefits of lockable diffs, with out the disadvantages – in different phrases, you get most traction, and are nonetheless in a position to steer round corners.
On downhill sections the Creeper Mode feels smoother and extra progressive than any Hill Descent Management system in an typical off-roader. That’s as a result of the pace is managed by controlling the torque at every wheel by way of every e-motor, and never by making use of the brakes. “E-motors are a lot sooner to react than brakes when co-ordinating themselves,” Schossau says.
Even when braked manually, the EQG feels superior. Like most EVs, braking occasions as much as 0.3g within the EQG are executed completely by way of regen. On a downhill off-road part all braking is subsequently executed by way of regen, and the e-motors work collectively to ensure traction is at all times maintained.
At pace in excessive vary on a mock rally stage, the EQG felt surprisingly agile, rotating properly into corners, and oversteering mildly below energy – the on-board computer systems monitoring the yaw charge, the steering angle, and the accelerator place to determine how far to let issues go.
Acceleration on straights pushes you again into the seats in typical big-horsepower EV style. “Our purpose was to make it straightforward to have enjoyable within the automotive,” says Schossau.
No energy or torque outputs have been introduced but, nor would Schossau reveal how huge the battery is, or how far the EQG will journey between costs. It’s honest to recommend, nonetheless, that the brick formed EQG is not going to break any EV vary data.
Schossau will solely say that the EQG’s on-road efficiency will likely be “unbelievable”. A touch, maybe, that it’ll outperform the 430kW/850Nm AMG G63, which is claimed to have the ability to hit 100km/h from standstill in simply 4.5 seconds.
Off street? “Functionality is extra necessary than vary,” Schossau says.
For the file, we began our three-hour session with the battery’s state of cost at 73 per cent and a predicted 217km of vary, ending with an indicated battery cost stage of 61 per cent and 160km of vary.
It’s nonetheless two years away from being completed with heaps extra software program and {hardware} to tune, however even at its present stage of improvement none of in the present day’s hard-core inside combustion engine off-roaders – Toyota LandCruiser, Land Rover Defender, Jeep Wrangler and even the non-AMG variations of the G-Class – can match the easy controllability of the Mercedes-Benz EQG in excessive terrain.
And what’s the third button on the EQG’s sprint for? We don’t know. It was coated with duct tape, and when requested, Fabian Schossau merely smiled and stated: “That’s the magic button”.
We will’t wait to seek out out what it does.
Click on the photographs for the total gallery
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