Mercedes signals electric future with EQ concept

EQ is making its debut in Paris as a single concept car, but as the brand’s first dedicated electric car design it presages an entire family of battery-powered Mercs. As well as the SUV style of the Paris concept car, expect saloons, coupés and cabriolets, all to be marketed under the new sub brand of EQ which will sit alongside AMG and Maybach in the Mercedes stable.

Zetsche said: “We're ready for the launch of an electric product offensive that will cover all vehicle segments, from the compact to the luxury class.”

What then of this first model, with its organic shape and distinctive black bonnet, glass roof and cool blue lighting signatures, what design chief Gorden Wagener sums up as the “electro look”? Aside from normal concept-car toys – cameras instead of rear-view mirrors, for example, which may not get the safety go-ahead in time for the 2019 launch – this is very much the look the EQ family of cars will follow.

The debut EQ is a cross between an SUV of the GLC class and a coupe, thus heading straight for the heart of Europe’s most popular new market slot. Expected to cost about the same as a decent-spec Mercedes GLC (the C-class based SUV) – so maybe £42k – it will be made of a mixture of steel, aluminium and carbon-fibre in order to balance lightweight, strength and cost.

Inside it’s just as “electro” cool, with, again, a new design approach to separate Mercedes-EQ from Mercedes-Benz. There’s a new asymmetrical dash with wide-screen display of the  organic light emitting diode (OLED) type that is all the rage in Paris this year for its super-clarity. The “floating” centre console has touch-sensitive pads. In fact with all the other controls being touch-sensitive, even those on the steering wheel, EQ is very much a knob-free zone. Apart from one thing: the familiar electric seat adjustment buttons. But the end of the road at last for the chunky old Mercedes stalks? Certainly.

EQ takes advantage of all the electricity coarsing through the car with an assortment of illuminations, taking its ”mood” lighting of recent models like the new E-class a stage further. With coloured LEDs galore the car can be lit up like a Christmas tree if you so want.

The bespoke electric architecture underpinning it is the really big news for Mercedes. It has motors in front and rear axles to provide permanent four-wheel drive, all overseen by the expected suite of torque-distributing electronics.

Power comes from lithion ion batteries set low in the vehicle’s floor. EQ delivers impressive numbers – 400hp, 516 lb ft of torque, 0-62mph in under 5 seconds – but the one really important one is range: Mercedes says this car can go up to 310 miles between charges. In a motor show where electric car range is huge news, that sounds impressive even if it still rather conceptual rather than a validated figure.

Still work in progress then, but by far the biggest commitment from Mercedes to an electric future, and at what is definitely turning out to be the most important electric car show ever.

EQ is said by Mercedes to represent a mix of emotion and intelligence. Fact is that very soon it will stand for a whole new generation of electric cars from the inventor of the automobile.