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Mercedes' Electric G-Wagen Can Turn in Place, Barbarically

The method is tiresome

By Rain Noe - January 16

in Cars

Having a car that could do a zero-turn—that is, turn in place—would come in handy in certain situations, particularly if you have a narrow driveway. Zero-turn lawn mowers can easily accomplish the feat because they only have two drive wheels, so it's a simple matter of having the wheels rotate in opposite directions:

Cars on the other hand have four wheels, so to accomplish a zero-turn would require all four wheels to pivot. The cost of engineering, manufacturing and maintaining such a system means it isn't viable for commercial production. The closest we've seen is German auto supplier ZF developing this Easy Turn suspension modification system, which can turn the front wheels up to 80 degrees:

However, Mercedes has gotten around the zero-turn problem, albeit in a rather brutish way. At CES the carmaker showed off their forthcoming 2025 EQG, an electric version of the G-Wagen, pulling zero-turns (which they've re-branded "G-Turns") on the Las Vegas strip:

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As you can see, not even the front wheels turn during the maneuver. Because each of the four wheels has its own electric motor, they can have the wheels rotate in countering directions at different speeds, resulting in the spin--and if you have the sound on, you can hear what hell it must be on the tires.

I believe this means the feature is still not commercially viable; conventional tire treads are not designed to deal with lateral wear, and if zealous safety regulators come sniffing, it seems unlikely the feature would be approved. However, I'd be surprised if a G-Wagen pulling a "G-Turn" doesn't pop up in a future James Bond, Fast & Furious or Mission: Impossible movie.

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Kevin Stohlmeyer

11 months ago

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notice how they did it on wet pavement to reduce the ear-piercing screech this must produce.

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Alexander Kramer

11 months ago

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Although tire shredding, I could image this would be a feature for law enforcement and security personal. Being able to turn on a spot as bodyguard for example would be worth a lot of tires if an emergency would occur...

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Ryan Cee

11 months ago

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Flavor of the week rapper video. That short Youcar clip just needed some lens flare and it'd be perfect.

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