Luxury EV Tackles Sand Dunes with Power and Precision
A new luxury electric SUV takes EV performance off-road, conquering massive sand dunes with 483 hp, 596 lb-ft of torque, and advanced torque-vectoring. Its 800-volt platform, adaptive air suspension, and smart braking system show how EV technology can deliver both luxury and rugged capability, hinting at the versatility of next-gen electric drivetrains.
Transcript
00:00:01 I'm here with the 2026 Mercedes-Benz Allect electric GLC. Now, typically when I drive a vehicle for the very first time, it's either on public roads or maybe it's on a track or maybe it's at a test facility. But instead, Mercedes has brought me here to drive this vehicle in these dunes. Mercedes unveiled the electric GLC at IAA this year. Expected to hit US shores
00:00:34 in late 2026. We have a while before the vehicle is on the road. Now, typically ahead of deploying a vehicle into the market, automakers will invite automotive journalists to drive it around on asphalt for a day or two. This time, Mercedes didn't do that. Instead, this happened. I'm about to drive an a midsize electric luxury vehicle on gigantic sand dunes.
00:01:01 Uh this the GLC. It's on the new uh Mercedes-Benz platform. 800 volt, no longer a 400vt uh platform. It's got the MB OS. It's got all these wonderful new things. And I'm going to drive it in dunes. Something no one's ever going to do after this. On that new platform, the 2027 GLC Formatic ships with 483 horsepower and 596 lb feet of torque. Mercedes says it will do 0 to 60 in an
00:01:28 estimated 4.4 seconds. Now, to help it conquer the dunes, the GLC irove was outfitted with the optional aromatic air suspension that can raise the ride height 1.8 in at speeds up to 75 mph. At up to 12 mph, the ride can be lifted up to 2.8 in for scenarios in which slow and steady can be used to navigate over extremely rough terrain. Of course, none of that matters if you forget to keep
00:01:56 the vehicle moving
>> to the Yeah. Okay.
>> Oh, guess we're going backwards, huh?
>> Uh, if you could do that, sure. Just slow, slow, slow and give it a go. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Keep on going. Keep on going. Keep going. Keep going, going, going, going. No. If you see those loose, deeper sand, um, just keep going.
00:02:18
>> Just keep going. Don't ever It's all about momentum.
>> Exactly.
>> The horrible thing is I grew up in a small town where there's all these dirt roads and I would tell people, "You got to keep moving and then I have immediately messed up."
>> No, no, no, you did not. We did not. It's just we're we're getting there.
00:02:32 Okay. Uh so what's happening is as I'm I am I am doing essentially just donuts in the sand is that as the vehicle uh recognizes that I'm sort of losing traction it adjusts so that it will you know the slip resistance so it'll just keep moving me forward. You shouldn't do this in your regular car, but if you have the opportunity to get a side by side, or I guess if you have a GLC in
00:02:58 the future when they come out next year, you could do this at uh this this sort of sand dune excitement and fun. This is this is really fun. It does feel uh a bit like surfing in a in a car. See, this is one of the one of the great things about for for electric vehicles is you have these four, you know, there's two motors on this vehicle. So, you have actual real time torque
00:03:24 vectoring, which is outstanding because it's torque vectoring based on the motors turning the wheels based in real time based on how much those wheel each individual wheel is slipping. Um, and that's wonderful because if you're in an environment where you just don't have a lot of grip, you probably want as much help as you can get from those very smart German engineers. Uh, but you can
00:03:48 also turn everything off like I have. And now I'm just spinning in circles. What we do with our new one box braking system is that we don't like use the energy that comes from the electric drivetrain and like use the the friction brake, but we also we say uh or we um have a like the spin on the wheels. We tell the the powertrain system, the uh the electric driving system how fast it
00:04:18 should go without using the brakes. So we we tell them go like 2,000 RPM or like in a band uh like that
>> um to don't use the so we don't have to use the friction brake for that.
>> Yeah.
>> Um
>> cuz they're they're
>> so with the braking with the the the braking system braking control system we
00:04:37 control the e drive the electrical drivetrain and tell them how to behave for that kind of slip
>> slip slip situation here. So, one of the the the
>> secrets, I don't know if it's the secret of drifting for for those who are un unaware is that you are you just have the hammer down almost the entire time when you're drifting a vehicle because
00:04:59 you want those rear those rear uh wheels to continue to spin in order to keep, you know, sliding. And if that was applicable in here, I would just keep spinning into non-existence here on this sand. it would just not be a great it would not be a good fun. So, it reduces power going to the to the uh to the to the wheels when you are when you have the you know the steering wheel
00:05:27 turned as like I have now. And but it'll also increase power once I have it straightened out. Oh, and it's also it also takes into account how much spin you have. So, if I do this and I'm still spinning, it's not going to keep giving me power. Then once you're like, "Okay, now you then I can feel it actually actually gripping um the sand. Once it once it actually has
00:05:52 some some uh adequate traction with on the sand. So all those roughness is because I drilled all these gigantic ruts into the sand."
>> Exactly.
>> It's okay. The wind will take care of it.
>> That's your initial now.
>> That's my initial. Just a big slimy mess. So the GLC, it will conquer sand
00:06:11 dunes if that's your thing. Uh, but more importantly for everyone else who is going to purchase this vehicle or is interested in this vehicle, it'll be available in late 2026. For more automotive coverage, be sure to subscribe to SIE International.