Mercedes-Benz SLS E-Cell prototype fuels our electric dreams with 526 horses
By Vlad Savov 
posted June 23rd 2010 2:08AM
posted June 23rd 2010 2:08AM
posted June 23rd 2010 2:08AM
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Fugly color.
@KlassiK
It should definitely be painted white with an oversized power plug (green) painted on its tail.
@KlassiK
The question is, can I unlock the doors / roll down the windows with an iPhone or Evo?
@KlassiK I say give it some love but how much does it cost to fill it 526 horses thats still gotta have a big tank of some sort?
@sycohnda209x
Forget the color, what good is a sports car without the SOUND of a sportscar? They'll probably add engine sound through the speakers, but that is bull.
@uckApple
I can already unlock/lock my doors with my iPhone in my current Benz... You can do it through mbrace...
@BogdanGC
I agree.
And anyways. How battery technology sucks guys. Changing batteries for this thing would be a pain.
I may be dumb, but can someone translate 480 KW of juice into Miles of driving range? lol
@silverton64 Watts are a measure of energy per second (it is the same as horsepower, but metric).
@silverton64 The 480kW is the power of the batteries, not how much energy they hold. You'd need to know how many kWh the batteries have, then divide that by power, to get how long (in terms of time, not distance) they run for.
@silverton64
480kW is not a measure of capacity. It's a measure of power.
480kW=650hp... of power from the batteries... which apparently translate to 525hp of actual kinetic energy from electric motors...
damn...screw the iphone 4 i'm savin up for this baby
@tdawg15
Well it is "Magical"
@8th Gamer I see what you did there :)
Trapazoid lcd?
@DefPoet
That's the first thing I noticed too... it's probably rectangular, and is just sitting behind a trapezoid bezel...
@pretol
Ahh see what have I been saying 2010 is the return of the bezel.
Very F***KING Nice
@tdawg15
Good idea
It won`t do that 0-60 many times...and cold weather , forget about it !
Rather have a Volks/Audi TDI !
@bufbarnaby Actually it has both cooling and heating systems to keep the car resilient to adverse weather.
@bufbarnaby Are you joking? TDI is cr@p, it really is. There are much better diesel solutions that this tractor engine with it's sound
@Vlad Savov Cold weather drains batteries very fast...you have no clue.
Don`t take this car on a ski trip.
@nemrtvy
also, unless you have trees on the roof of your car i fail to see an eventual possibility where it runs on 0 emissions, as these babies have the potential to.
@bufbarnaby
isnt that what the heating part of the system is for...
@bufbarnaby
That's why you insulate and have liquid temperature control for the batteries, like this car (also the Tesla Roadster) has. If you have an air cooled battery pack (like the iMIEV or MINIE), then that is when you run into problems in cold weather.
@nemrtvy
You clearly haven't driven some of VW's newer diesels.
FYI...Yellow is the American color for international sports car racing.
Should be Silver.
@bufbarnaby White with blue stripes is American racing colors.
Audi just swept 24 hrs of Le Mans...AGAIN...with a Turbo-Diesel.
Most wins at Le Mans Porche #1 , Audi #2 . Both part of the Volkswagen group !
@bufbarnaby porche just became part of vw, you say it as if vw is responsible for their wins
@bufbarnaby I don't know ho porche is, but I sure know who Porsche is, and trust me, being part of the VW group has absolutely nothing to do with their wins!!!
@bufbarnaby Consider it luck because those lap times peugeot were setting were sick.
0-60 in four seconds is fine and all, but what I want to know is if they have had to dramatically increase the cars weight compared to it's gasoline counterpart and if it has effected that cars handling. That being said, if MB does decide to put this into production, I'm sure they will have sorted out such matters by then.
@TheWalrus
Yeah, Mercedes is going to fix all problems... while at it, they're going to fix the economy as well... and perhaps all common causes of constipation...
@pretol
When did I say that? The only thing I said was that MB was going to make one of their prototype sports car handle well if they put it into production.
Diesel , Wankel , Otto-Cycle...all German inventions : )
First Jet powered airplane...German.
@bufbarnaby
they didn't fly the first jet powered aircraft.its was Romanian/French
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coand%C4%83-1910
@sod
does not look like "jet" to me... looks like propeller
I think bufbarnaby was referring to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinkel_He_178
That transport ship that got your iPod/iPad over here was powered by a huge DIESEL engine.
@bufbarnaby
nope most huge ships use heavy oil
what's that in euro-hands?
Bah, pointless.
ICE still offers higher performance than an equivalent electric power-plant.
Electric however has environmental benefits, but can only make an impact in the mainstream, as such very rare exotics make absolutely no practical difference even if they ran on the sweet yet salty tears of recently orphaned baby seals.
I will be far more excited to see more AFFORDABLE mainstream electric motorcycles, scooters, and small economy cars that can be sold in the tens of thousands.
@Ducman69 We have powerplants operating at 55% efficiency. No way an ICE can ever get to that number..
Mostly in the range of 20% for a gasoline engine and 30% for diesel.
Then the charger at 90% and battery to motor efficiency 90% then electric motor 85%. Total = almost 40% efficiency.
Then our powerplants are gasturbine. So less Co2. And you can use the Co2 for the nearby farms.
And you can use solar energy or windmills or any other type of energy converted to electricity. !!
@Ducman69
lmao who told you that ICE's were efficient?
@grumbles *facepalm*
Dilekz and Grumbles, please learn 2 read.
I said, and I repeat, "ICE still offers higher performance than an equivalent electric power-plant."
These are very rare performance exotics. Even if they get 2mpg and belch out smoke, they amount to so few miles they have no real impact. A $15K 500lb ICE + fuel engine will HUGELY outperform a $15K 500lb electric + battery combination, by a huge margin.
That is why electric cars and motorcycles can't hope to compete with ICE counterparts in racing yet. And if you follow my posts, I am a huge proponent of electric vehicles, want an Aptera for myself if they sold them in Texas, and have been following the TTXGP.
But take one of those TTXGP bikes and put them up against last place in the regular GP, and they would get owned hardcore.
and theres a vid
in german unfortunately
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2A3e9Nss3o&feature=player_embedded
Does it require a power outlet every 400 yards?
I dig!
I'd better start recycling aluminum now! And in about 50 years...this baby is mine!!