Das neue Konzeptauto von Mercedes ist so hässlich, dass es schwer zu beurteilen ist.

 A few days ago, Mercedes-Benz unveiled its latest AMG all-electric concept car, the AMG GT XX (hereinafter referred to as XX).

Although Mercedes-Benz's EQ series has been a complete flop, you can always trust their high-performance division, AMG. From the AMG GT at the top to the AMG A35L ridiculed by netizens at the bottom, none of AMG's cars are losers.

AMG GT two-door version

Currently, on the Nürburgring production car ranking list, the AMG ONE firmly holds the first place, leading the second-place Porsche 911 GT2 RS by more than 8 seconds.

It even ranks fifth on the overall Nürburgring list. In front of it are cars like the Porsche 919, Volkswagen ID.R, Xiaomi SU7 Ultra prototype, and Lotus Evija X that can't be driven on the road. The AMG ONE is truly amazing.

This time, the GT XX takes it a step further than the AMG ONE. As AMG's first independent all-electric model, it packs in all the available technologies and claims to be the fastest Mercedes-Benz.

 However, since its release, there has been a continuous stream of skeptical voices about this top-tier flagship that represents the future development direction of Mercedes-Benz's all-electric technology.

The biggest controversy lies in its awkward appearance. Brother Neck borrowed a line from netizens: "That night, Maserati and Ferrari got drunk."

 The front of the GT XX has a huge grille almost as wide as the body, surrounded by a decorative light strip. The auxiliary lights are built into both sides of the grille, making it look very much like a fish's head...

 Of course, this thing isn't completely useless. Mercedes-Benz has hidden some tricks in it. They've stuffed speakers into the headlights. You can listen to this simulated engine sound. Bloggers who have experienced it on-site all say it's probably the best-sounding simulated engine sound among current electric cars.

Looking at the side, the proportions are much more normal. The GT XX is equipped with pop-up hidden door handles, side skirts painted with luminous paint (which lights up when powered), and a 21-inch high-tech aerodynamic wheel.

This aerodynamic wheel has several switchable blades. When you need to drive in an energy-saving mode, you can close them to reduce wind resistance. When you're driving aggressively and need to enhance brake cooling, you can open them.

The rear of the car features a powerful wide-body fastback. There's a hidden "plate" at the rear. This isn't a liftable spoiler but rather something like an aircraft's speed brake, used to increase resistance and assist with braking.

However, what's more eye-catching at the rear is the MBUX fluid light panel composed of more than 700 programmable LEDs, which can create animations to interact with the outside world.

 As for the interior, AMG has given it a technological makeover, with a distinct cyberpunk style.

The huge tubular ambient lights, like high-voltage cables, indicate that this is an electric car. The changing shades are like it's filled with liquid. The interior trim panels are made of the same resin material as the AMG engine hood.

Moreover, in addition to using discarded tires as raw materials to promote environmental protection, the carbon fiber bucket seats are more importantly customized for the owner. AMG will scan the owner's body shape, just like for an F1 driver...

 After looking at the exterior and interior, the electric motors and battery are the highlights of this GT XX.

This car is built on Mercedes-Benz's new AMG.EA platform and uses three high-performance axial flux motors (also known as disc motors) from YASA, a subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz.

This type of motor can provide extremely strong power while being smaller in size. This gives the GT XX 1340 horsepower, a top speed of up to 223 miles per hour (about 360 km/h), and it's also expected to achieve a 0-100 km/h acceleration in less than two seconds.

Currently, Lamborghini and Koenigsegg are also using axial flux motors. We've also written related articles before. If you're interested, you can take a look (How did Koenigsegg achieve 800 horsepower with one motor?).

This time, in addition to the extremely powerful motors, Mercedes-Benz has also specially developed the battery.

The battery of the GT XX is developed by the high-performance department HPP (the department that develops Mercedes-Benz's F1 engines). They've innovatively used a nickel-cobalt-manganese-aluminum quaternary material.

Compared with ternary lithium batteries, the nickel-cobalt-manganese-aluminum battery has a small amount of aluminum added. By utilizing the properties of aluminum, the thermal stability of the battery is enhanced, and the energy density of the GT XX can be pushed to the limit, reaching 300 Wh/kg.

In addition to the innovation in materials, HPP has also applied F1's immersion cooling technology to the GT XX for cooling.

Currently, most batteries on the market are cooled by inserting water-cooling plates between the battery cells. As you can imagine, the water temperature near the water inlet is lower, resulting in better cooling effects. However, by the time the water reaches the outlet, the temperature has already risen.

So, the battery of the GT XX is like a computer with immersion liquid cooling. It's directly immersed in a special coolant to improve heat dissipation efficiency.

Currently, the GT XX hasn't mentioned the durability of its battery. However, in terms of charging efficiency, a charging power of over 850 kW can charge the car for 400 kilometers (WLTP standard) in 5 minutes. It seems to be even faster than BYD's recently released megawatt fast charging, and it should be even better at maintaining peak power.

Moreover, the GT XX's battery has a special packaging technology. Mercedes-Benz AMG's Michael Schiebe revealed that the entire battery pack is designed to be tall and thin, making the ground clearance of the GT XX 2 inches lower than that of the current AMG GT four-door version (currently, the ground clearance of the AMG GT 63 SE is 112 mm).

 This will make the whole car closer to the ground clearance of a racing car. Combined with the bottom fairing design, it can achieve better aerodynamic effects.

It can be said that in terms of technology and innovation, the AMG GT XX has undoubtedly taken another step forward compared to the previous AMG ONE.

 But we've talked about so many top-notch technologies, yet... it still doesn't look good...

As a top-tier sports car, if it can't provide sufficient emotional value, it'll really become a tree without roots.