Mercedes to upgrade its EQE and EQS

German premium car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz will reportedly upgrade its EQE and EQS electric models to an 800-volt electrical system from 2025 onward, allowing charging capacities over 200 kW. According to media reports, the switch to 800-volt system voltage is part of a larger upgrade of the EVA2 platform, which will then be called EVA2M.

EVA2 is the 400-volt platform on which the EQE and EQS series are based, i.e., both the sedans and the corresponding SUV models (including the Maybach offshoot of the EQS SUV).

According to the German automotive blog JESMB, the EVA2 will receive a comprehensive upgrade under the name EVA2M – the ‘M’ stands for “Mopf”, the Mercedes-internal abbreviation for model updates.

A new drive implies 800 V

Apparently, the previous e-motors from Valeo will be replaced by the eATS 2.0 drive developed by Mercedes-Benz itself, which operates with an 800-volt electrical system. Since this eATS 2.0 is only designed for 800 volts, the voltage position for the drive must also be changed for the EVA2.

In principle, the eATS 2.0 unit will also be installed in the future platforms MMA (CLA, as well as the next generation of the EQA and EQB) and the MB.EA-M (C-Class and GLC). According to JESMB, the new MB-EA-L platform for the large e-vehicles from 2028 will receive a drive unit called EDU3.0; EDU stands for Electric Drive Unit.

The EVA2M will also use new Silicon Carbide (SiC) power electronics and a new type of battery cell. The SiC power electronics alone, instead of semiconductors made of pure silicon, are supposed to increase the range by 5% due to lower heat losses.

All that is said about the new cell type is that it is “identical to the MMA platform”. Whether it is a different cell chemistry or a change in cell format (round?) is not mentioned.

+200 kW charging

The change to 800 V system voltage means that the current charging upper limit of 200 kW no longer applies. The current CCS charging standard is limited to 500 amperes, so no more than 200 kW is possible at 400 volts.

With the over 100 kWh batteries in the EQS models, this meant that particularly short charging times were not possible. That should improve with the switch to 800 V, but there is no mention of how far the charging power will increase and, consequently, the charging time to decrease.

The switch to 800 V is not an end in itself; a good charging curve with 400 V can enable acceptable charging times in practice. However, the fact that manufacturers of less expensive cars, like Hyundai or Kia, for example, can charge faster is not always likely to please Mercedes’ luxury clientele.

Two-speed gearbox

The switch to the eATS 2.0 brings another innovation: unlike the current Valeo drive with a direct gear transfer box, the eATS 2.0 has a two-speed gearbox.

In the EVA2M and MB.EA-M, the ‘large’ variant is used. Here, the platform support module is stronger to cope with the increased torque. The basic version of the eATS 2.0 for the MMA models also has two gears but is designed for lower power.

Mercedes has already introduced some improvements in the 400 V version of the EVA2: a heat pump, a 22 kW onboard charger, and a decoupling unit in the all-wheel-drive variants for the front electric motor.

The aim is simple: provide a better customer experience through a longer practical range and shorter AC charging times. With the major upgrade to EVA2M, a bigger change is on the cards.