Mercedes G Class EV Will Get More Efficient Silicon Battery Tech From Ex-Tesla Engineers

The Mercedes G Class is one of the most iconic vehicles of all time. It is an SUV that is highly revered even among celebrities.

However, even this boxy vehicle couldn’t resist the change to the EV platform. Thus, Mercedes is now working to offer an EV variant of the G Class as well.

How Much Energy Density Boost Can Be Expected?

According to reports, the company has decided to go for a new approach to EV batteries. For getting a performance boost of around 20% in terms of the energy density of such batteries, they will use Silicon anodes.

The company behind these Silicon batteries is Sila Nanotechnologies. It is working on these unique EV batteries and is trying to raise the bar by getting a 40% higher energy density than the current EV batteries.

What Makes Sila Nanotechnologies Special?

Sila Nanotechnologies is special. That’s because it has been formed by three highly trained experts in the field.

Two out of these three individuals previously worked for Tesla as engineers. However, the third one was a Georgia University professor.

The company was started under the title of Georgia Tech initially but later it was changed to Sila Nanotechnologies in 2011.

How Is This Silicon Battery A Huge Breakthrough?

This Silicon battery might be on its way to setting the new standard for the EV field.

That’s because it alters the world of EV batteries by getting rid of the current ceiling of the energy density associated with Lithium-Ion batteries.

As evident from the below graph released by Sila Nanotechnologies, these batteries are already ahead of the limit of Li-ion batteries. However, as you can see, by 2031, the dynamics are expected to change further.

Sila believes that while the Li-ion batteries are highly acclaimed in today’s EV world, they have hit their energy limit.

However, thanks to the new research of Sila, the batteries with Silicon anodes will offer much better performance.

Will Production Facilities Require Major Revamping?

The best part of this new technology from Sila is that it is production-ready. That’s because it can act as a full or a partial replacement for graphite.

So, the existing battery manufacturing processes can be used for the manufacturing of these batteries as well.

This saves the current battery manufacturers from having to invest millions of dollars into their production lines for these new batteries.

The EV Mercedes G Class Will Be Significant

The first vehicle in the world that will add the option of choosing these new batteries from Sila is the EV version of the Mercedes Benz G Class.

The partnership between the two companies is not new because Mercedes invested in Sila back in 2019 and now that Sila’s batteries are ready, the company is ready to reap the profits.

The German luxury automaker believes that the EV battery technology from Sila will be a game-changer in the world of electric vehicles.

This bold statement was made by Mercedes Benz’s CTO of development and procurement.

Final Verdict

While the electric version of the Mercedes G Class will be a big thing in itself, adding this latest EV battery technology to this gas guzzler of the past will aid it further in taking away a major share of sales from the current EV SUVs.