Yesterday the first car of the new EQ brand, the Mercedes-Benz EV-brand, the EQC was presented in Stockholm. Time to look at the looks and the specs and determine whether the car can become a success.
The EQC (Source)
Looks
The EQC is a compact SUV. It has nice fluent curves, a fake grille on the front and a stretched tail-light section on the back. To me it looks a bit like a Porsche Cayenne from the side and very Mercedes-like at the front. A pretty looking car I'd say!
| Front | Rear |
|---|---|
 |  |
Specs
The EQC has a 80 kWh battery that should make a real-world range of about 320 km (200 miles) achievable. It comes with two motors, that power the front and back wheels separately, which have a total capacity of 300 kW (408 hp). With these motors the EQC should reach 100 km/h (62 mph) in about 5.1 seconds. Charging can be done using a 7.4 kW onboard charger, which makes charging from empty to full take more than 10 hours, or rapid charging at up to 110 kW.
As with all MB-cars the EQC comes with a lot op options, packages and settings. These contain 5 driving modes, 5 (regenerative) braking settings and (likely) a lot of interior options.
Will it be a success?
The fact that Mercedes-Benz is building its first from-the-ground-up EV is something to be very pleased with. It is great to see that the established car manufacturers are taking EVs serious and I think Mercedes is one of the more serious OEMs here.
That said, I suppose a lot of long term MB-fans are desperate to try out the EQC and, eventually, many of them will order one. There are some (minor) issues however that might become a problem for it to really break through.
- Firstly, the top speed is only 180 km/h. Especially in the home market of Germany, where people can drive as fast as they want on most parts of the highway network, this will be considered a bummer.
- Secondly, the range of 300-350 km is not bad, but still not very convenient for taking long distance trips. Especially when you take into account that the EQC cannot use the Tesla Supercharger and ultra-fast charger networks have yet to be build out in large parts of the world. This means that a lot of times the maximum charging rate will be around 50 kW, which would mean a 20% to 80% charge would still take more than an hour.
- Thirdly, although the prices have not yet been announced, the EQC is not likely to become a cheap car. Mercedes is well known as a luxury brand with relatively high priced cars. Here in The Netherlands the, more or less comparable, GLC series start at over €65,000. Taken into account that the battery pack is quite big, I'd expect the EQC to cost at least €85,000. That makes it too expensive to become affordable for most people. On the other hand €85k is nearly as expensive as a Tesla Model X, which is bigger, has a top speed of 225km/h and can use the widely accessible Supercharger network. If I would have that kind of money (and wanted to spend that on a car), I know which of the two I would buy...
What do you think? Do you like the looks and specs? And do you think the EQC will become the next big thing in the EV world? Let me know in the comments below!