Mercedes Benz continues to push the electric car envelope in remarkable directions. The German company has announced it will be unveiling what it calls the Vision S 500 Plug-in HYBRID at the Frankfurt Auto Show next week. This is a full size S-class high luxury high performance sedan that can drive up to 18 miles on pure electricity. It is not a range-extended electric car like the BlueZero Cell Plus concept previously unveiled, but rather a parallel PHEV. The vehicle uses a 6 cylinder gasoline engine as the main powerplant which is integrated with a 44 kw (60 hp) electric motor. There is a rechargeable 10 kw usable lithium ion battery pack mounted in the rear. Mercedes points out that this battery location is “crucial” to maintain weight balance and allow a substantial size for the gas tank. The weighty car can accelerate from 0 to 60 in 5.5 seconds. It will drive purely on electricity when possible but the gas engine will go on any time power demands increase sufficiently such as with strong acceleration and hill climbing. The on-board charger allows recharge in 4.5 hours at 120 V but is capable of accepting a fast charge at 20 kW in 60 minutes. Mercedes has also announced the car will achieve a fuel efficiency of 3.2L/100 km which translates to 72.5 MPG, and will emit a 74 gCO2/km.

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