Vision One-Eleven, this is the new prototype presented recently by Mercedes. Through this retrofuturistic concept car, the Stuttgart firm offers a high-performance and luxurious vehicle by paying homage to a former glory of the brand.
Whether you love or hate this brand, you have to remain objective. The manufacturer Mercedes has always known how to give birth to icons in the history of its automobile production. After the 300 SLR of 1954, let us quote the most recent, but nevertheless impressive SLS C63 AMG, whose CO emissions2 would make any ecologist green with envy. But the Vision One-Eleven pays special tribute to a specific model, the C11-II, produced experimentally between 1969 and 1991. Its particularities? A rotary piston engine and a top speed exceeding 400 km/h in… 1979!
A futuristic reinterpretation of design
Some people will certainly find it looking like a supercar straight out of GTA, as if drawn almost generically. Others will find the design quite successful. Tastes, colors, all that. We must still admit that the Vision One-Eleven has benefited from a sacred pencil stroke. This new concept car is therefore freely inspired by the emblematic lines of the C11-II, but in a modernized version of course. It is therefore fully electric and equipped with the latest technological innovations.
The concept adopts the “One-Bow” design of the Mercedes EQE and EQS range of electric vehicles. With its racy contours and its silhouette riveted to the ground, it is only 1.17 meters high. The butterfly doors, the centrally positioned cockpit and a monocoque: everything is there to remind you that you are on board a luxury-oriented sports car. A black strip runs across the car from the bonnet to the rear, allowing the driver to display information for other road users. Rather useful if you tumble down the Autobahn at breakneck speed in the left lane.
Serious performance and cutting-edge tech
The Vision One-Eleven will be powered by two axial-flow electric motors, designed by British company YASA, which Mercedes recently acquired. We find the same thing on its recent Vision AMG. Compared to traditional radial flux motors, these offer higher power while being more compact and lightweight. Mercedes obviously lets the mystery hang over the power and autonomy of the vehicle, it would be much less funny otherwise!
The car battery will benefit from an innovative cooling system. Composed of cylindrical cells, it will be kept at the right temperature by a forced circulation liquid cooling system. This system comes from a technology directly inspired by F1.
By playing the retrofuturism card with the announcement of its new concept, Mercedes wishes to offer the best of both worlds: an avalanche of technologies in an old school setting. If the vehicle promises to be efficient, for the moment, a large gray area remains on the subject. To be seen if this concept car will pass the production stage and find its audience.
Sources: TheArgus, Top Gear, mercedes
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