The Mercedes Ener-G-Force was presented yesterday as the German carmaker's competitor for the 2012 LA Auto Show Design Challenge. Apparently, Mercedes-Benz actually went and built it and it's going to premiere it at the Los Angeles show. As announced yesterday, the Mercedes Ener-G-Force is a police car for year 2025 and it's based on the G Class. The Mercedes Ener-G-Force is imagined as a patrol vehicle for a world where the crowded roads are electronically monitored, where humans have a different behavior and where leisure activities take place mainly outdoor. Mercedes developed the Ener-G-Force to be highly fuel efficient and to have good off-road capabilities. In terms of design, the Mercedes Ener-G-Force has small windows for offering increase protection for the officers inside, emergency lights integrated into the roof, huge 20-inch wheels and a high ground clearance.
The designers at the Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Studio in Carlsbad, California, were so excited about this concept that they actually built a 1:1-scale model of a civilian version of the Ener-G-Force. The Mercedes Ener-G-Force comes with tanks on the roof for holding recycled water, which is converted into hydrogen for powering the SUV's fuel cells. This process generates electricity, which is stored in special units integrated into the SUV's side skirts. The Mercedes Ener-G-Force has an estimated range of around 800 km and it's powered by four electric hub motors integrated into each wheel. It's also equipped with a "Terra-Scan" 360-degree topography scanner on the roof that's used for scanning the terrain. This information is used for adjusting the spring and damping rates as well as other suspension parameters for maximum traction. The Ener-G-Force's side skirts can also hold battery packs and they change their illumination to signal whether the car is operating or charging.
