STUTTGART—As it prepares to celebrate the 140th anniversary of the world’s first automobile (a three-wheeled contraption invented by Carl Benz in 1885) in 2025, Mercedes-Benz AG is looking to the future of mobility. It recently provided a glimpse of new EV technology that its engineers are working on, including next-generation brakes, electric drives and photovoltaic body panels.
“Innovative strength was and is among the most important driving forces of Mercedes-Benz,” says Markus Schäfer, chief technology officer at Mercedes-Benz Group. “Our brand has been shaping automotive progress for almost 140 years with pioneering technologies. For us, innovation only makes sense if it offers our customers real added value.”
Mercedes-Benz engineers are in the process of developing a brake system for EVs that no longer occupies its conventional location inside the wheel. Instead, it is integrated into the electric drive unit at the front or rear axle (see photo above). It occupies very little space and is subject to minimal wear, doesn’t rust and is virtually maintenance-free.
According to Schäfer, the new design enables a significantly lighter wheel-tire combination and therefore lower unsprung mass, which, in turn, improves ride characteristics. In addition, it would facilitate fully closed rims for optimized aerodynamics, because openings for brake cooling would no longer be required.
Engineers are also developing a new generation of EV power electronics. In the future, a programmable micro-converter could go beyond the limits of current electrical inverter systems and revolutionize existing high-voltage architectures. The basis for this is the integration of these micro-converters directly at battery-cell level, which could enable individual control of battery-cell pairs as well as communication between cells.
Schäfer says the programmable micro-converters could reduce the production variants of electrical components and could also be easily reprogrammed for the latest updates. The new technology has the potential to enable integration of several power electronics functions into high-voltage batteries.
The significantly improved use of space, as well as a reduction in the number of variants, would open up entirely new freedoms in the layout and design of electric vehicles. At 5 micrometers, they are significantly thinner than a human hair, weigh just 50 grams per square meter and are packed full of energy.
In addition, Mercedes-Benz engineers are developing solar modules that could be seamlessly applied to the bodywork of EVs, similar to a wafer-thin layer of paste. The solar cells have a high efficiency of 20 percent and can be applied to any substrate.
According to Schäfer, the photovoltaic system is permanently active and generates energy when a vehicle is switched off. In the future, this could be an effective way to increase range with fewer charging stops.
