Under the hood: The Mercedes EQC lithium-ion battery

Plenty of people have their concerns about the safety of batteries in cars – we’ve seen enough drama with phone batteries so the idea of much larger and more powerful batteries in cars

Here in Sweden, ahead of the global launch of the first Mercedes Benz electric car the EQC we’ve gone behind the scenes to see just what sits underneath the car and its most important component – the battery.

Mercedes plan to build batteries in three continents, with five facilities in Europe, one in the USA and one in Thailand.

The actual battery as installed in the car as part of the third marriage of major components on the production line is an impressive beast.

Inside it are six modules, four of them are crammed with 72 cells each, and two in the middle with 48 cells each.  The two larger modules at the back are stacked on top of each other, and sit roughly under the rear seat.

But the real beauty is in the cells inside – the real chemistry, the science of battery technology.

There are a total of 384 cells – in a “pouch” format.

This is a very different approach to Tesla, who use a cylinder for the cells – to the average Joe – much like a large AA battery.

When asked about the choice of Pouch design, EFTM was told this allowed for a greater density – essentially – more power.

As always, there’s no way to quantify the life-span of an electric vehicle battery – it’s different for every user based on their driving and charging, however, the EQC battery is backed by an 8 year 160,000 km warranty, and Mercedes expects customers to get “much more” out of the battery.

Batteries don’t just stop working – they degrade, so in reality, the EQC in 10 years from now will just have less range than it does on day one.

Trevor Long is in Sweden as a guest of Mercedes Benz Australia