- Mercedes has developed a brand new in-drive braking system touted as having a number of vital benefits.
- It’s “nearly maintenance-free,” traps brake mud, is best for the surroundings and guarantees to remove brake fade.
- The system is presently being examined with no clear timeframe for a manufacturing utility.
The overwhelming majority of vehicles have outboard brakes which might be linked to their wheel hubs, and solely a handful include inboard brakes. Mercedes has taken issues one step additional and put the brakes contained in the housing of an electrical automobile’s drive unit, and it’s touting a number of benefits, together with by no means having to service the brakes for the lifetime of the automotive.
Electrical autos can use their motors to decelerate, not solely saving their friction brakes from put on but additionally placing electrical energy into their battery pack. Varied corporations have proposed various kinds of brakes for EVs, from Continental’s ultra-think mountain bike-like disks to the drum brakes that Volkswagen equips all autos constructed on its MEB platform, like the ID.4 or Audi This fall E-Tron.
VW argues that even in its EVs with over 300 horsepower, drum brakes are enough for the rear. Many of the braking is completed by the entrance brakes anyway, so going again to this older fashion of brakes (which is cheaper than disk brakes) is a technique VW has tailored its autos for electrical propulsion.
Mercedes has now taken this one step additional with its in-drive brakes. Nonetheless, it hasn’t merely taken a standard disk or drum brake setup and put it contained in the drive unit. It fully reimagined braking, and within the model of the system they confirmed us in Stuttgart final week, the disk is water-cooled and it doesn’t spin, and the brake pad is round and it spins with the motor.
There is no such thing as a conventional caliper both and scrubbing velocity is achieved by pushing the round brake pad onto the stationary disk. Mercedes says this technique shouldn’t require service for the lifetime of the automobile and all of the brake mud it generates is stored contained in the system in a compartment that doesn’t should be emptied.
The upcoming Euro 7 (EU7) emissions commonplace doesn’t simply have a look at tailpipe emissions. It additionally takes tire and brake particulate emissions from autos into consideration, so retaining brake mud from going into the surroundings will grow to be extra of a speaking level in Europe as soon as EU7 comes into power in 2026.
This looks as if a giant departure even from the inboard brakes that we already know. Mercedes argues there are many benefits except for the system being “nearly maintenance-free.” For the reason that disk is water-cooled, brake fade underneath heavy use shouldn’t be a problem. It additionally reduces unsprung weight, which improves dealing with.
One other benefit touted by the producer is with the ability to equip autos with fully coated, aerodynamic wheels that may assist decrease autos’ drag coefficient. The system would additionally cut back braking noise, and house owners wouldn’t be met with rust-covered brake disks after not driving their vehicles for just a few days.
We didn’t suppose this was such a giant situation, however Mercedes instructed us this particularly was one thing it bought many complaints about. The Mercedes engineer who defined how this new braking system works mentioned eradicating the caliper from the wheel will give designers much more freedom to create unique-looking wheels, however it will likely be laborious to persuade automotive fanatics that this is a bonus.
