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Mercedes-Benz is starting the automotive year 2021 with an electric version of its smallest SUV - a year that will be characterized by fierce competition for the best electric car.
All major manufacturers are bringing new electric models onto the market this year.
With the EQA, the Daimler brand has now been the first to present a new car - albeit not the best that can be expected this year.
In the past year, electromobility has grown at three-digit rates and has developed from a niche in the market into the most important future area for car manufacturers.
In the second half of the year in particular, the registration figures picked up speed; in December, every fifth new vehicle in Europe was an electric or plug-in hybrid vehicle.
The manufacturers want to fuel this boom with a product offensive.
The VW Group alone will be launching ten new fully battery-powered cars in 2021, from five different brands.
BMW will start series production of the iX luxury car and the electric version of the 4 Series in the second half of the year.
Electric car trend
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Four pure electric models come from Mercedes, including the eagerly awaited EQS.
This electric sister of the S-Class is supposed to outperform the upper-class model of the competitor Tesla in many ways.
Daimler will build the car on the basis of new, self-developed technologies for electric cars, with an infotainment system that uses artificial intelligence and a range of more than 700 kilometers per battery charge.
However, the Stuttgart-based company is not yet making this major technological leap.
The EQA, an electric sister of the GLA, shares essential technical elements with the combustion engines.
It is a compact SUV with the beefy front and large wheels that are typical of electric cars.
A car for the urban public and from the point of view of Daimler board member Britta Seeger the entry-level model in the fully electric Mercedes range.
"We are very confident that the car will have a significant share in sales of electrified vehicles," she said in an interview with journalists.
Mercedes also uses the new MBUX user interface in the EQA
Source: Daimler AG
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Since the EQA will be delivered to customers from February onwards, it should achieve significantly higher sales figures than the EQB and EQS, which will be launched later in the year.
Overall, Mercedes-Benz is aiming for a 13 percent share of electrified vehicles in its sales this year, but this includes plug-in hybrids.
Five new models of these cars, which have an electric engine as well as an internal combustion engine, are expected to come onto the market this year, and Mercedes already has 20 on offer.
In the case of purely electric vehicles, however, the product range is still thin.
It essentially consists of the EQC, the battery version of the best-selling Mercedes GLC passenger car.
The group was able to sell 20,000 of these last year.
In addition, he sold 1,700 EQV minibuses and 27,000 electric Smarts through the joint venture with the Chinese Geely Group.
The new EQA now shares a major weakness with the EQC compared to the competition: It is not fundamentally redesigned as an electric car.
This is noticeable, among other things, in the range.
At the start, the car is available in the EQA 250 version with a range of 420 kilometers according to the WLPT test.
In real operation, drivers will probably have to recharge much earlier.
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The car is therefore more suitable for everyday life in the city and not for regular long-distance journeys.
At least the navigation system is set up for this case.
For longer journeys, it automatically includes charging stops and the duration of charging in the route calculation.
In addition, the "Electric Intelligence" navigation system should know in advance where the charging stations are and whether they are currently free.
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Mercedes promises that there will be an EQA version with a range of well over 500 kilometers in the future.
When exactly?
“It will come as soon as possible,” Seeger answers vaguely.
The developers obviously do not want to achieve the additional kilometers with a larger battery alone.
Instead, there is talk of “a consistent increase in the efficiency of all vehicle components”.
The more efficient components are initially reserved for the EQS and the EQE, which is due at the end of the year.
But it only costs half as much as an S-Class.
In Germany, prices start at 47,540.50 euros;
the net price is set at just under 40,000 euros so that customers can receive the full state subsidy.
The Mercedes EQA 250 in digital white
Source: Daimler AG
This makes the car hardly more expensive than the ID.4 from Volkswagen, the cheapest version of which starts at 44,450 euros.
Both SUVs also have similar external dimensions, the Mercedes is only twelve centimeters shorter than the VW.
In terms of range, the ID.4 are clearly ahead with more than 500 kilometers.
They are produced on the basis of VW's modular electrical construction kit, which is the basis for all of the Group's new electric models.
In addition, unlike the EQA, the ID.4 is sold worldwide.
The new electric Mercedes, assembled in Rastatt and Beijing, on the other hand, will only be available in Europe and China.
For a real technological breakthrough in electromobility, Daimler will not start for a few weeks.
With regard to the models still to come, Seeger says: "We are very much looking forward to vehicles that are in great demand all over the world."