Mercedes has revealed a brand-new concept car that it thinks will change the world of high-performance electric cars. The Mercedes-AMG GT XX is a four-door supercar that packs some pretty intimidating figures, but behind them is a range of new powertrain technologies that will proliferate into other Mercedes models, including one that’ll take a similar form to this four-door concept from as early as next year.
The key development in the AMG GT XX is its new axial flux electric motors. Developed by British company YASA, the new motor is both considerably smaller and more power dense than existing technology, and its introduction represents a change that is as significant as when fuel injection replaced carburettors.
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An axial flux motor works in a completely different way to existing e-motor tech, fundamentally changing the internal structure and axis of rotation. This has many benefits, but the most important are that an axial motor is around one third of the size, and two thirds the weight, of an equivalent current e-motor, yet has three times the power density.
The new tech’s application in the GT XX is three-fold, because the concept mounts two motors on the rear axle and one on the front to create a tri-motor layout. The majority of the power is derived from the rear axle, with the front cutting in to help out with traction and helping produce that 1,341bhp peak power figure.
