There’s definitely a growing sense that Mercedes-Benz (excluding AMG here, of course) will have a rather singular focus when their showcase line-up comes into view at the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show in mid-September. And that would be their emerging sub-brand, EQ.
The future-facing new side to Benz was first shown off last year with their Generation EQ at last year’s Paris Motor Show, an SUV concept that both showed off their design direction as well as hinted at the technological roadmap they’re keen to forge down.
For 2017, the Daimler Group’s electric and/or autonomous offensive starts with the Smart EQ fortwo concept and continues here with a teaser for the new baby under the Benz label: the EQ A. Size-wise, it should fittingly follow either the A-Class or GLA-Class (since the first EQ concept was an SUV). Either way, aside from ride height and a few other distinguishing factors, they are surely readying a fully electric hatch.
Since Mercedes-Benz hasn’t revealed any further details apart from the single teaser image above, the assumption is that this car would match the Tesla Model 3 and BMW i3 roughly for interior space, price, and electric range should it be offered for sale soon - that, however, seems unlikely.
Or, to put it another way, the market a production EQ A would need to flourish in would be more crowded once it is expected to arrive, a date that’s increasingly looking like 2019 or beyond. For one, Volkswagen’s similar electrified offensive would have begun with the similarly sized (and Golf-like) ID hatch while automakers such as Nissan are on the cusp of unveiling a showroom-ready Leaf hatch, another similarly sized fully electric hatch that would presumably undercut it significantly on price.
On the visual front, we see a similar motif to last year’s concept (and their Vision Tokyo of 2015) in which the front end is dominated by a large logo and grille that’s highlighted liberally by glowing blue illuminators that run along the the various lines of its smooth intake-less face.
No doubt it will also showcase the automaker’s latest strides in autonomous driving and intelligent solutions to driver (and passenger) comfort, convenience, and safety. It should also expand upon the inductive high speed charging tech that Mercedes-Benz started to explore with last year’s EQ-branded concept.
The interesting thing part of all this is that it’s well within reasonable expectation that every other major competitor, as well as the more mass market automakers, will be unveiling similar - if not eerily identical - features on the Frankfurt show floor as well.
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