CES 2020: Mercedes presents an avatar concept car with graph-based battery technology

At CES 2020, Mercedes-Benz would like to give an outlook on the sustainable mobility of the future. At the world's largest auto show, the company is launching a concept car inspired by the film Avatar and the fictional world of Pandora. The show car not only looks spectacular, but is also said to contain a few innovative technologies.

Digital services and climate protection
You can also dream in the automotive industry. And that is exactly what happens in the partnership between Daimler and the director James Cameron, in the context of which Mercendes-Benz puts the world "Pandora" from the 2009 film Avatar at the center of a product development. It starts with the development of digital services and culminates in the show car presented at CES.

Digital services are playing an increasingly important role in the automotive industry. Software is now one of the core elements of modern cars. For example, Mercedes introduced the MBUX multimedia system in 2018, which offers navigation, connectivity, games and of course music. In the future, the functions offered should increase, but the information that the driver is confronted with will be reduced in return.

And climate protection should also play an important role in future product development. Under the slogan "Ambition 2039", the vehicle fleet should in future be climate neutral in accordance with the Paris Agreement.

Avatar show car: this is the future
The "Vision AVTR" project car presented at CES takes inspiration from the Pandora fantasy world, in which the residents live in harmony with nature. Accordingly, there is an organic-looking interface that brings machine, nature and people into harmony. The communication between car and driver should communicate in the form of sensory impressions.

Picture: Mercedes-Benz

The interior of the car is dominated by screens that show a kind of multimedia experience from the world of Avatar. The control element in the center console pulsates and, when touched by the user, signals the connection with a light pulse that acts like the bioluminescence from the film. Of course, the car drives autonomously - control impulses for changes in direction can be given via the control panel.

The concept is very futuristic and is intended to evoke associations with a living being rather than a machine. The design language is reminiscent of a tree with gentle curves, and the rounder tires are supposed to look more natural. The seats, in turn, are supposed to be reminiscent of the leaf hammocks of the navigation system, the residents of Pandora.

Technically, the car's battery technology is particularly noteworthy. The batteries were developed with graphene-based organic cell chemistry and are completely free of rare earths and metals. They are completely recyclable and are intended to make electromobility independent of fossil resources. Mercedes wants to establish a “circular economy” in the raw materials sector and thus promote sustainable e-mobility.

The car of the future
Of course, the show car is a pure design study that should show how Mercedes-Benz envisions the mobility of the future. It will be a long time before we see such cars on the road - such studies rather show what would be conceivable in the coming decades. This is also underlined by the fact that Mercedes kept a low profile on details like performance or speed - it was just about showing what the future could look like.