Brad Pitt’s new “F1: The Movie” has put Formula One firmly in the spotlight this summer and aims to sell new fans on the excitement of the racing.
Automakers don’t just get involved in the series to win trophies, however. The series serves as a testbed for new technologies, many of which eventually trickle down to production cars.
The latest comes from the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team, which has lent its expertise to a new sports sedan with astonishing capabilities.
Mercedes-AMG is the performance division of Mercedes-Benz. It is best known for its thunderous V8-powered cars and SUVs, but its latest effort is all-electric.
The Concept AMG GT XX is a thinly veiled preview of an upcoming model. The sleek four-door features an unusually shaped front end and wheels with computer-adjustable blades that help reduce its aerodynamic drag to less than that of any mainstream car on sale today. What’s underneath is even more interesting.
The Concept AMG GT XX is powered by three electric motors that are very different than those used in most electric cars. Instead of the common radial flux design, they use an axial flux setup that switches the electrical field from perpendicular to parallel to the axis of rotation, as the name suggests. I won’t attempt a deep dive into the engineering behind it, but suffice it to say that it allows for a smaller and lighter motor that provides the same power as a radial flux motor at a third of the weight. The trade-off is that they are more complex and expensive to build, which is why they are launching in a model that will be priced well into the six-figure range when it goes into production.
The Concept AMG GT XX has three of these, with two for the rear wheels and one up front that can generate a combined maximum output of 1,341 horsepower. That is enough to propel the car to a top speed of 223 mph. What is arguably even more impressive is how quick it is, and not just when it is accelerating.
The car is equipped with a new type of battery borrowed directly from the Formula One program, which uses hybrid power units. The pack is comprised of cylindrical NCMA (nickel/ /cobalt/manganese/aluminum) cells that are taller than slimmer than normal, which Mercedes-AMG says provides better heat dissipation and improved performance.
The 800-volt cells are bathed in a non-conductive oil coolant that can be used to adjust the temperature of individual modules quicker than conventional systems can. Electric vehicle batteries need to operate within an optimal temperature range for the best efficiency. The discharge and charge cycles of a performance car driven with vigor on a track put the batteries under great stress, which often requires the computers to reduce power to get things back under control.
That’s also true when a vehicle is plugged into a charger. Many EVs have a feature that will optimize the battery temperature on the way to a charging station so it is able to accept the maximum power when it arrives. This shortens the charging time, but there are limits, and 20-minute to 40-minute sessions remain the norm.
At least in the U.S. and Europe. China now has cars and stations capable of providing 250 miles worth of electricity in just five minutes and that’s what Mercedes-AMG says the Concept AMG GT XX can do. It plans to add the new high-power chargers required for this to its own public network, which currently has stalls at several Starbucks and Buc-ee’s travel center locations across the U.S., which would shorten road trip travel times significantly, even without breaking any speed limits.
Mercedes-AMG has not said exactly when the final production version of the Concept GT XX will go on sale, but it is aiming for late 2026. You’ll hear it coming when it arrives.
It hasn’t forgotten about what Mercedes-AMG customers expect and has developed headlight clusters that incorporate speakers, which can project a V8 engine-inspired sound. It seems fitting, as one of the great debates in Formula One circles these days is that the hybrid cars aren’t loud enough and fully electric cars are silent.
Mercedes-AMG clearly learned something else from its racing endeavors: It doesn’t matter how fast your steak can cook, it still needs a little sizzle.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
