Mercedes-Benz unveiled an electric vehicle (EV) prototype that is said to have a range of 1,000 kilometres, or 620 miles, per charge, creating some serious competition for the likes of upstarts Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Lucid Group Inc (NASDAQ:LCID).
The Vision EQXX model reportedly uses less than 10kWh energy per 100km, significantly lower than Tesla’s Model S 60, which uses roughly 18.1kWh per 100km, according to its website.
Last year, Tesla announced its Model S could travel up to 560km on a single charge, while new rival Lucid said its Air Dream Edition range could go nearly 900km on a single charge.
Mercedes parent company Daimler (ETR:DAI) AG, which will soon rebranded to Mercedes-Benz, announced last year that it will be ramping its investment in electric vehicle production to keep up with competitors.
The Germany-based car manufacturer said it will be investing over US$45bn in EVs, including the production of eight battery plants, with plans to produce only EVs from 2025.
Ola Källenius, chairman of the board of management of Daimler (ETR:DAI) AG and Mercedes-Benz AG, said the model is “how we imagine the future of electric cars”.
“Just one-and-a-half years ago, we started this project leading to the most efficient Mercedes-Benz ever built – with an outstanding energy consumption of less than 10 kWh per 100 kilometres. It has a range of more than 1,000 kilometres on a single charge using a battery that would fit even into a compact vehicle.”
It is unclear yet when the vehicle will be available on the market.
Daimler (ETR:DAI) shares were up 5.15%, trading at €72.24 at the time of publication.