Mercedes-Benz released a quick but impressive video demonstration of the EQG, the new electric G-Wagen, doing a smooth tank turn.
The “tank turn”, the ability of a vehicle to do a 180-degree turn on the spot, has been popularized in electric vehicles by Rivian with R1T.
Interestingly, Rivian achieved that without using rear-wheel-steering but simply because it can apply torque independently at each four wheels thanks to its quad motor powertrain.
Since then, many electric automakers have turned to rear-wheel steering, which is quickly becoming a must-have feature for electric pickup trucks and bigger EVs coming to market, to enable the capacity along with more maneuverability in general.
GMC started the dance by demonstrating “Crab Mode’ utilizing rear-wheel steering on the Hummer EV. Several other automakers have since announced rear-wheel-steering and Tesla followed with the Cybertruck last year. We recently saw a quick video of what it looks like on the Cybertruck.
Now Mercedes-Benz is the latest company to bring “tank turn” to its electric vehicles.
The company has released a new short video of a Mercedes EQG prototype demonstrating a tank turn on sand:
Obviously, the surface on which a tank turn is important. Sand makes it both easier and also doesn’t destroy the tires as much as a harder surface.
The German automaker first unveiled the Mercedes-Benz EQG concept at IAA last year, and it has had the fans of the G-Wagen buzzing, but not much is known about the vehicle since it is still at the concept stage.
More recently, Mercedes did reveal that the new electric vehicle is going to feature a next-gen battery using an anode developed by Sila, a battery startup that the German automaker invested in back in 2019.
More details about Mercedes-Benz EQG are expected to be released closer to production, which is scheduled for 2024.
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