The oldsters at Mercedes-Benz will not come out and straight say it, however they get that individuals aren’t actually into the present “EQ” household of electrical autos. Their ultra-smooth styling has confirmed extraordinarily polarizing, gross sales have trailed rivals like BMW, and to high it off, there is not any method across the awkwardness of names like “AMG EQS SUV.” So for its subsequent go at EVs, Mercedes is taking a distinct strategy: protecting the “class” names folks know and love, however appending the title “with EQ Know-how,” similar to on this new Mercedes-Benz G580 with EQ Know-how.
We have recognized for over a yr that Mercedes was planning to drop the devoted “EQ” model for electrical autos. However we did not know what kind the subsequent step would take till Britta Seeger, the Mercedes AG board member for advertising and gross sales, confirmed the brand new technique on a name with reporters forward of the electrical G-Class’ debut.
Mercedes’ rocky EV rollout
Within the high-tech arms race towards the way forward for automobiles, Mercedes leads in some areas, like voice-controlled options. However in some ways it’s trailing rivals like BMW who’re making the electrical transition with stronger gross sales, and the present crop of EQ-branded EVs have confirmed extraordinarily polarizing. Will this new naming system hold issues extra acquainted?
“That is the primary automobile the place we are saying, we’ll hold our product title and we think about the expertise which is inside,” Seeger mentioned of that SUV. “To 99-point-something p.c, you will note they’re equal, design-wise. That is why we have chosen to say this can be a G-Class with EQ Know-how. This will likely be, going ahead, our nomenclature for these automobiles.”
She added that fashions “in the marketplace” proper now, just like the EQE and lately redesigned EQS, will hold their present names. However she confirmed that upcoming fashions, such because the manufacturing model of the electrical CLA Idea, could be referred to as “CLA with EQ Know-how” or one thing related.
“Why did we select [to do] so? As a result of we have seen that message the Mercedes clients they like to establish themselves with the courses we have now,” she mentioned, reminiscent of being an E-Class or S-Class proprietor. “We imagine it is the precise cut-off date to face with the G-Class title and focus on the expertise that you just discover inside, and this would be the identical for all future automobiles to return.”
Seeger added, “That is why we put, on the forefront, the traditional Mercedes title of a category [like] C-Class, after which we think about the expertise.”
The transfer is sensible, and it tracks with a sure sentiment each inside the corporate and out of doors of it: that the present strategy with the EQ automobiles is not precisely working.
At CES this yr, Mercedes’ VP of automobile engineering Christoph Starzynski informed Prime Gear that these automobiles’ designs have delay conventional Benz consumers. And in a “totally electrical” world, it was turning into a problem to call all of their automobiles. (For the file, I’m truly a fan of the EQE sedan, however I appear to be within the minority there.)
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Moreover, names like S-Class, E-Class and G-Class have a long time of name fairness that different rivals would kill for; why eliminate these simply because the powertrains are totally different? It is a bit like how BMW’s upcoming Neue Klasse platform is anticipated to maintain the three Sequence and X3 names in a roundabout way. Automakers do not wish to throw these out once they dump gasoline.
Audi has had related struggles, however as an alternative is opting to make even-numbered automobiles like A4 and Q6 into EVs whereas protecting the odd-numbered ones combustion-powered. We’ll see how lengthy that strategy sticks round, as a result of it is arguably extra complicated.
Optimistically, then, the brand new G-Class with EQ Know-how provides us a preview of what to anticipate from Mercedes within the coming years: automobiles a lot nearer to the traditional ones everybody is aware of, simply with batteries as an alternative of engines—and possibly a bit extra of a mouthful of a reputation.
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