Mercedes-Benz aims to produce electric cars consuming as little as 10kWh of energy per 100km, its chief technology officer said, a third more efficient than the current average for electric cars.

Speaking as the car maker celebrated the successful test drive of its EQXX prototype vehicle over more than 1 000km from Sindelfingen in Germany to the Cote d’Azur in France on a single charge, CTO Markus Schaefer said efficient design was key to maximising an electric car’s range.

“First we optimise efficiency, and then we can see how many battery modules we put in the car,” Schaefer said at a media roundtable, adding that customers should be able to decide the size of the battery they want based on their needs.

Car makers from Mercedes-Benz to Tesla to China’s Nio are in a neck-to-neck race to produce higher range cars that dispel consumer anxiety over the lack of widespread charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.

Mercedes unveiled its Vision EQXX prototype, boasting a 1 000km range with a battery half the volume of its flagship EQS model, in January, promising that some of the car’s components would make their way into series vehicles in two or three years.

The car spent 8.7kWh of energy per 100 km on its 11-and-a-half hour drive to France, Mercedes-Benz said, about twice as efficient as Mercedes models on the market and Tesla’s longest-range car on offer, the Model S 60.

Mercedes’ EQS has the highest range on the market as of yet, according to car comparison portal Carwow, with 768km, followed by Tesla’s Model S Long Range with up to 652km.

“There’ll be a further increase for some time before a fall, which will happen once charging infrastructure is as available as petrol stations,” Schaefer said, although he declined to state what range Mercedes was targeting in future models. — Victoria Waldersee and Ilona Wissenbach, (c) 2022 Reuters