Seen at the recent Detroit’s North American International Auto Show 2010 (NAIAS 2010), is the new Mercedes Benz SLS AMG E-CELL model and this is supposedly the German car maker’s future design. The state-of-the-art new model is one crazy vehicle where they have successfully put on show a super sports car with a zero-emission drivetrain.
The car is powered up with a 626 horsepower and 649 lb-ft of torque engine and this prototype comes with gullwing doors. The car is painted with the AMG developed ‘lumilectric magno’ flouresent colour, if this model gets to production, it would most likely be in a small number. Ola Kallenius, the chairman of the Mercedes-AMG GmbH board said that the SLS AMG E-CELL represents a further milestone in the company’s ‘AMG Performance 2015” strategy which is aimed to reduce consumption as well as emission in their new models for the future. This, he said is aimed to be done without compromising any feathers of the brand’s high performance cars.
This would be a new territory in this particular segment and the electrically powered Benz takes only 4 seconds to get from zero to hundred which is almost the time taken by the petrol version, SLS AMG model. The latter is powered up by a 6.3 liter V8 engine which takes 3.7 seconds to hit the century mark. The agile accelerator response and straight line performance too provides more excitement for the driver with the all wheel drive providing better handling and performance.
The motor is powered up using liquid-cooled high-voltage lithium-ion battery while in front of the car, they have used full-LED headlamps which also incorporates daytime driving lights as well. AMG also provided the design of the 10 spoke light alloy wheels covered with a set of 265/35 R 19 rubbers in front and 295/30 R 20 on the rear tires.
AMG also re-designed the dashboard particularly with the center console and the instrument cluster inside the car where the latter informs the drive on the speed, the battery’s charge status as well as estimated range of the car. This is where you get the 10 inch touchscreen system which also controls the entertainment functions of the car. If this is what the future is going to be like, in terms of eco-friendliness, speed and design, then it surely is very exciting indeed.
