Mercedes Vision EQXX concept once again travels more than 1,000 km on one charge

Mercedes unveiled the Vision EQXX concept more than two years ago, and in the meantime bragged multiple times about its range. The EQXX has managed to travel more than 620 miles on a single charge not once, but twice.

Well, actually, now it's thrice. For whatever reason, Mercedes keeps touting the range of a car that isn't and will never be sold, taunting us with the prospect of 620 miles+ ranges for EVs that will hopefully arrive in the future.

This time around, the EQXX traveled from Riyadh to Dubai, a journey of precisely 628 miles - you guessed it - on one charge. The car showed "groundbreaking energy efficiency of 7.4 kWh/100km (8.4mi/kWh), the official press release says. According to Mercedes, "even the Arabian Desert is no obstacle to energy efficiency".

The route profile had busy city streets as well as open desert, with ambient temperatures of up to 93°F. And still, the EQXX beat its own previous best "by a considerable margin". We're happy for it of course, while still wondering what the point is here.

Mercedes says the purpose of this third trip was "to maximize efficiency in all areas and examine system performance under extreme desert conditions". That's all fine and dandy, but, again - this is a concept car, not an actual production model that's being tested ahead of release. For what it's worth, a "further developed version" of the EQXX's "multi-source heat pump" is integrated into the Concept CLA Class. So who knows, in a few years it might even make it to a real car.

The EQXX also has a solar roof, and during its 14 hours and 42 minutes trek from Riyadh to Dubai it managed to harvest 1.8 kWh of solar energy, adding 15 miles of range. That probably ends the debate about how useful solar roofs are, right?