Mercedes-Benz SLS and eco-friendly are not word that you’d expect to find within a country mile of one another, but the company’s SLS Electric Drive, with outputs eclipsing those of its 6,2-litre V8 sibling, may just be enough to suggest otherwise.
Touted as the world’s most powerful EV at its Paris Motor Show unveiling, the SLS Electric Drive features a quartet of synchronous electric motors producing a combined output of 551 kW and a stump-pulling 999 N.m of torque. Coupled on an axially-arranged transmission design and fed by a lithium-ion battery pack, these motors essentially make the SLS Electric Drive an all-wheel drive vehicle with an on-board management system capable of apportioning variable drive to each wheel in accordance with prevailing driving conditions.
They also make the SLS Electric drive 132 kW and 351 N.m more powerful than the V8-engined SLS AMG, which goes some way to explain the EV’s 3,9-second 0-100 km/h sprint time. Having said that, the top speed is limited to 249 km/h.
