Mercedes Debuts Electric Blue SLS E-Drive and B-Class

By Marcus Slater - September 27, 2012

We’ve known about the SLS AMG E-Drive for some time. Heck, we’ve already seen it on the road. But now we’ve seen it in eye-searingly bright, chrome, vinyl. You probably won’t be able to buy it this color from factory. Thankfully.

Mercedes has dropped some more information about the car’s underpinnings too. After all, if you’re going to rip out that enthralling AMG V8 you better have a good reason. Surprisingly, the trade might be worth it. There are electric motors at each wheel that grant the coupe 740hp and 737 lb-ft of torque. For comparison, the regular SLS AMG makes 560hp. Of course, you have to balance those numbers against the added weight of batteries, but that’s still really impressive. It won’t outrun the normal SLS to 60mph, but it’ll still get there in under 4 seconds. We can only imagine how much quicker it is at the high end.

That power to performance ratio might seem lacking compared to gas engine, and it is. But in exchange, you get the instantaneous power of an electric motor and a whopping 155 miles of traveling time. Charging from dead to full will take a similarly epic 20 hours.

If you want it, it’ll cost around $537,000. So if you don’t have half a million dollars to spend, the electric B-Class might be more your speed.

It won’t do 0-60 in four seconds (more like ten), nor will it go 155 miles on a single charge (more like 120). It will, however, be able to pull enough charge from a regular outlet in an hour to drive 60 miles. Despite it’s more modest specs, it still manages a respectable 228 lb-ft of torque: more than enough to putter down the freeway and up hills. Who knows? Someday there might be an AMG version that’ll be able to embarrass all those little gas powered hot hatches.

Bright Blue Benzes with Batteries! Tell us what you think of this electric duo in the forums!

photos: GFWilliams