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Mercedes-Benz Upgrades its Charging Wallboxes

At the 2018 Geneva Motor Show, Mercedes-Benz unveiled diesel plug-in hybrid versions of the C-Class and E-Class, models with which it plans to reduce the carbon footprint of its vehicle lineup. With the new models, the carmaker also introduced the newest generation wallbox charging technology.
Mercedes-Benz wallboxes to be controlled via smartphone 6 photos
Photo: Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz charging wallboxMercedes-Benz charging wallboxMercedes-Benz charging wallboxMercedes-Benz charging wallboxMercedes-Benz charging wallbox
To make charging possible for both hybrid and fully electric models, the new wallboxes will allow charging with up to 22 kW from wherever the owner wants to install it, home or office. For the hybrid models mentioned above, charging would take 7.2 kW out of the wallbox, making the entire process four times faster than when charging from a domestic wall socket.

The hybrids presented in Geneva would thus take two hours to charge to 100 percent with this technology, while a regular plug in a wall would charge the battery to capacity in some seven hours.

But newest feature of the revised wallbox is the fact that they can be Internet-capable. For the first time, say the Germans, various functions of the technology would be controlled via apps on a smartphone. What’s more, access through Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) means that a wallbox can manage several vehicles of different users.

Mercedes-Benz says intelligent sharing of the charging power means there will be no need expensive upgrading of the existing house connection. One of the variants of the wallbox would also allow two vehicles to be charged simultaneously from the same source.

The new charging stations will become available starting this summer in Europe, with 40 other global markets to follow later in the year.

The wallboxes would be offered at yet undisclosed prices in three versions: Wallbox Home, the internet-capable Wallbox Advanced and the Wallbox Twin, for charging two vehicles at the same time.

For the existing wallboxes, the German carmaker charges the equivalent of over $1,100 in the United Kingdom.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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