Mercedes-Benz will use its BlueZero concept to showcase the final weapon in its three-pronged attack on fuel consumption. While it has already shown its fully electric and its fuel-cell versions of the BlueZero, it has completed the concept line-up with a range-extending battery-electric powertrain, which will be launched before 2015, according to Daimler sources.
Built around the patented sandwich-floor chassis of the existing B-Class, the BlueZero sees Mercedes mate up a 1.0-liter, 68-horsepower three-cylinder petrol engine directly to a generator, which then drives the car’s electric motor. Known as a series hybrid, it is a step more advanced than the parallel hybrids offered by Lexus and Honda , which drive the wheels through either the electric or the gasoline motors.
Dubbed the E-cell Plus, the Mercedes-Benz BlueZero hybrid might only have a nominal 95 horsepower, but there’s an astonishing, big-diesel-esque 236 lb-ft. of torque and, as it is coming from an electric motor, the maximum torque is available instantly, at any time.
Mercedes-Benz sits the petrol engine inside the sandwich floor at the back of the car, the 18kW/hour Lithium-ion battery pack sits inside the middle of the floor and the electric motor sits in the engine bay, driving the front wheels.
As yet, there are no official fuel consumption numbers, because the petrol engine only ever charges the battery pack and never directly drives the wheels, but Benz suggests it will emit around 32 grams of CO2 per kilometer.
Even so, it will still cover the zero to 62 mph sprint in less than 11 seconds and will hit 93 mph as a top speed. On the flip side of the performance coin, Benz claims the five-door hatchback will stretch to 62 miles on a single battery charge, while the advanced battery pack can be fully recharged in under half an hour. Coupled with its petrol engine, the BlueZero E-cell Plus has a range of almost 360 miles.
The cementing of the car’s future means Benz will also retain the expensive sandwich floor architecture, while the next generation A- and B-Class cars can move to cheaper single-floor designs when they go on sale in 2011.
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