As if an S-Class needed to get quieter.
While it’s hardly out of the norm for companies like BMW and Audi to release electrified versions of their flagship cars, what Mercedes-Benz is opting to do is a little unconventional. Rather than offering a full-electric S-Class (they already offer a plug-in hybrid variant), the boffins in Stuttgart figure it’d be best for them to make a similarly-sized competitor to their flagship limousine under their new EQ electric sub-brand.
Dubbed the ‘EQS,’ the all-electric luxury limousine has already been clarified to be a standalone proposition, and not an S-Class variant. Speaking to Autocar, Mercedes’ large-car project boss Michael Kelz said:
“We will have an electric vehicle at the level of S-Class, no doubt. But it will not be the S-Class.” — Michael Kelz, Large Car Project Chief, Mercedes-Benz AG
This comes after it surfaced that Mercedes-Benz had filed trademarks for a number of ‘EQ’ nameplates, ranging from EQA to EQS, suggesting that the German luxury marque had the intention of creating a whole family of electric cars to ‘shadow’ its existing internal-combustion-motivated portfolio. Naturally, all EQ cars will make use of Merc’s ‘Modular Electric Architecture’ (MEA), which was engineered from the outset to maximise the capabilities of electric propulsion.
*And they won’t need this stupid step in the boot floor, either.
Kelz was surprisingly forthcoming about EQ and its future products. On the EQS, Kelz said we could expect to see “short overhangs front and rear, thanks to packaging under the floor, and huge wheelbases.” He also went on to explain the logic behind this ‘bespoke’ electric model, saying that re-engineering an existing platform, optimised for an internal combustion mill, is more costly and challenging than utilising an electric platform for a larger model like the EQS.
He also went on to say that he’d seen a concept version of the EQS saloon, and that we can expect to see a production model by 2020 (or 2022 at the latest, given Mercedes’ intention to have some 20 full-EVs in its portfolio by then).
To that end, parent company Daimler recently announced that it would invest some €10-billion ($16-billion) into the investment of its electric vehicle portfolio, with at least 10 models being built off the same underpinnings (presumably MEA). Under that mammoth investment plan, Daimler would also seek to develop batteries of larger capacity, with the goal to offer no less than 700km in operating range, and a century sprint time of under 5-seconds.
For more information on Mercedes-Benz, check out our Showroom.
