Car brands such as Mercedes show technological highlights during the CES tech fair in Las Vegas. Like a cool trick from the new electric Mercedes G-class that you are not allowed to use on public roads.
On Instagram you can see how Mercedes on the Las Vegas strip, four camouflaged copies of the new electric G-class perform a maneuver that is normally only done by army tanks: the tank turn. The vehicle (normally an army tank) rotates around its own axis.
G-Turn not for public roads
Mercedes itself speaks of the ‘G-turn’, but the principle is the same. It goes like this. The electric Mercedes G-class is powered by four electric motors. And if you rotate the left two in one direction and the right two in the other direction, the plug-G rotates on its axis.
In the video, Mercedes makes it clear that this function is not intended for public roads. The G-Turn should make it easy to maneuver while off-roading. Because with a different setting a turn of 90 degrees is also possible. In any case, little of the tire profile remains on asphalt.
Mercedes G-Class specifications
Mercedes brought the electric G-class to Las Vegas to make it ‘dance’, not to talk about it. That’s why we have to make do with the information we already had. So the SUV has four electric motors – one per wheel. The four engines all have two gears, with high and low range. This way, each wheel can spin at a different speed, which is very useful for off-roading. A limited slip differential is therefore no longer necessary.
A new type of battery from Mercedes is expected to debut in the electric G-class. This is a silicon battery that was first seen in the Mercedes Vision EQXXconcept model. This is 100 kWh, but due to the use of silicon, it is a lot lighter than a conventional lithium-ion battery.
It appears that the large SUV has undergone a name change. The electric version of the G-class was originally called the Mercedes EQG mentioned, but at the fair the car was referred to as simply ‘the electric G-Class’. This name is so strong that we would not turn around in surprise if Mercedes decided to drop the EQG name.
