Mercedes Previous Electric Vehicle Prototypes - W201 & W202

Electric drive in model series 201 and 202

It was not just internal-combustion engines that continued to set trends in the Mercedes-Benz compact class. Alternative drive systems did too, pointing a way ahead for the automotive industry. A test car based on model series 201 was presented at the Hanover show’s innovation market in 1990 and the Geneva Motor Show in 1991. It featured two permanent magnet excited electric motors fed by sodium/nickel chloride batteries, each of which had an output of 16 kW (22 hp) and was used to drive one rear wheel. One key advantage of this design was the omission of weight-intensive mechanical components. The vehicle paved the way for further developments in electric drive systems.

Between 1992 and 1996, a road test involving 60 passenger cars and vans made by various manufacturers was conducted on the island of Rügen. Several Mercedes-Benz vehicles took part in the four-year test, including 10 passenger cars from the 201 model series with various electric motor/battery combinations. One of these vehicles was used particularly intensively, and clocked up an annual mileage of 100,000 kilometres on the island.

Seven of the electric 190 models weighing around 1,400 kilograms each had a sodium-nickel-chloride high-temperature battery, were used for testing various asynchronous engines and achieved a range of around 110 kilometres. Thanks to the torque characteristics of the drive system, no transmission was required. Three of the test vehicles with synchronous drive system featured nickel-cadmium batteries with a range of around 40 kilometres; these were equipped with a standard manual transmission. All of the vehicles were fitted with two batteries – one at the front and one in the boot – which were connected using heavy-duty cables in view of the peak currents of up to 400 A. The vehicles were charged at special filling stations with solar collectors to ensure systematic testing of the environmental credentials.

An electric vehicle with an asynchronous motor developing 35 kW (48 hp) and a range of around 110 kilometres, based on model series 202, was then exhibited at the 1993 Frankfurt International Motor Show. This vehicle featured powerful ZEBRA high-energy batteries; the acronym stands for “Zero-Emission Battery Research Activities”. One special feature of this vehicle was the innovative positioning of the batteries and powertrain components which. thanks to their size and installation locations, ensured spaciousness on a par with the standard saloon. Also on display at the Frankfurt International Motor Show were two early research vehicles with hybrid drive based on model series 202: one with a parallel hybrid drive, the other with a serial hybrid drive. Both provided key information for the introduction of hybrid technology into production at Mercedes-Benz several years later.

Model series 201 and 202 were therefore technology pioneers used for the early testing of electric and hybrid drive systems in passenger cars. This pioneering spirit lived on in all subsequent Mercedes-Benz vehicles with forward-looking drive systems, whether test vehicles or ultimately production vehicles.

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