Mercedes is betting on being able to equip cars with brakes that never need to be changed before 2040. The brakes must last the life of the car.
If you don't exactly burn tires, the clutch in a car can easily follow the car from assembly line to scrap. Now Mercedes wants to do the same with the brakes.
What might sound like science fiction is real enough. In any case, Mercedes' engineers are testing a set of brakes that never need to be changed.
The idea is to move the brakes from the wheels and into the engine itself. This kind of thing can, for completely natural reasons, only be done on electric cars. That is why Mercedes also only carries out the test work on electric cars.
More concretely, the idea is to let the electric motor itself handle most of the braking. In advance, the factory people in Stuttgart believe that the regeneration of energy, which today slows down the vast majority of electric cars, can handle 98 percent of all needs to brake.
The new thing is that Mercedes will insert a safety system that takes care of the remaining and more acute braking. That is, where the driver really stands on the brakes to keep still.
READ ALSO: Car cemetery with 17,000 cars arose spontaneously
Mercedes-Benz has developed a new braking system for electric cars that could potentially eliminate the need to replace brakes. The system uses a circular disc that is placed between two brake pads.
To meet the challenge of brake dust that can accumulate in the engine, smaller discs have been implemented. Brake fluid can potentially lead to malfunctions in the engine.
A potential disadvantage of the system is the risk of overheating. As the brakes are integrated into the motor, significant amounts of heat can be generated. Mercedes-Benz engineers are investigating the possibility of using water carbonization as a solution to this problem.
The new brake system reduces the weight of the wheels by almost 100 kg. This reduction in weight also enables the production of wheels with a closed design. This design change can improve the car's aerodynamics, which can result in lower energy consumption and increased range.
However, the fact that the new brakes are only being developed for electric cars does not mean that the brand is focusing exclusively on electric cars. In fact, this year the brand has had to admit that you cannot do without the internal combustion engine after all.
The director of the whole thing, the Swedish-German Sten Ola Källenius, has reportedly stopped the development of several electric cars. Just as he has allocated funds to the development of 'hyper-efficient internal combustion engines'. Read more about it here .
