Mercedes-Benz will begin producing six all-electric EQ models (the company’s battery-electric vehicles line) by the end of 2022. Two of those vehicles will be assembled at its plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
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Mercedes-Benz: new EQ models
Mercedes-Benz, the German automaker, announced Monday its “Ambition 2039” initiative. The company’s program aims to attain carbon neutrality throughout Mercedes’ product line.
“Our vehicle portfolio becomes electric and thus also our global production network with vehicle and battery factories,” said Markus Schafer, Mercedes-Benz COO, in a statement.
“We intend to lead in the field of e-mobility and focus in particular on battery technology.”
In this regard, the new battery-powered vehicles will include the EQS (about the same size as the Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedan), beginning production in the second half of 2021. This model will be assembled at the company’s Sindelfingen, Germany. Therefore, production will be expanded to Tuscaloosa in 2022.
Other models will be the EQA, an SUV. These are already produced in Rastatt, Germany.
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Mercedes-Benz will also start a new assembly line in Beijing, China, in the year to come. Regarding the EQB SUV model, its production will begin next year in Kecskemet, Hungary, and Beijing, China.
Therefore, the EQB SUV will be the first EQ model to be sold in the United States.
Another model, the EQE, which is about the same size as the Mercedes-Benz GLE utility vehicle, is expected to be launched in Germany and China in 2021 and Tuscaloosa sometime in 2022.
According to the report, additional EQ models will be introduced later in the decade. Mercedes also plans to enhance further its manufacturing battery systems in the U.S., Germany, Poland, and China.
The EQ sub-brand launched in 2019 with the EQC in Bremen, Germany.
“We are investing more than 10 billion euros in the development of our EQ vehicle portfolio alone,” said Ola Kallenius, Daimler AG CEO.
“We will also be electrifying the entire Mercedes-Benz portfolio, and our customers will thus have the choice of at least one electric alternative in every Mercedes-Benz model series, taking the total to 50 overall.”
The automaker will continue to manufacture plug-in hybrids in models such as its VLC 350e 4Matic. Mercedes currently offers about 20 plug-in hybrid choices and plans to increase that to 25 over the next five years.
The goal is to achieve half of all sales from mild-hybrid and all-electric powertrains by 2030.
