Mercedes-Benz introduces new EQS electric sedan to face Tesla

Mercedes-Benz believes its new EQS sedan will redefine the all-electric luxury vehicle segment as it competes against Tesla and a growing number of new emerging companies and old car manufacturers.

The 2022 Mercedes-Benz EQS, unveiled on Thursday, marks a new era for the German manufacturer as it pivots on electric vehicles. The car will be part of its large family of S-class vehicles when it hits U.S. showrooms in the fall.

“The EQS is designed to exceed the expectations of our most demanding customers,” Mercedes-Benz and Daimler CEO Ola Kaellenius said in a 63-page press release for the car. “That’s exactly what a Mercedes has to do to earn the letter ‘S’ in its name. Because we don’t award this letter lightly.”

Most notable is that the interior of the vehicle looks like a cabin of a future spaceship rather than a car. It has screens on almost the entire dashboard of the vehicle. In total, it has three screens under a single 56-inch curved glass surface, including a passenger screen that will not be visible to the driver.

The automaker did not release EQS prices, although industry experts expect it to easily exceed $ 100,000. The starting price of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class 2021 ranges from $ 94,000 to $ 160,000. Its Mercedes-Maybach S models can exceed $ 200,000.

“They started at the top,” said Jessica Caldwell, executive reporting director at Edmunds.com. “This is similar to what we’ve seen with some other carmakers. It’s their most expensive vehicle that will come out first.”

The price range for Tesla’s large Model S sedan ranges from $ 79,990 to $ 149,990, including a new high-performance model, the Model S Plaid.

The interior of the EQS is essentially the opposite of the Tesla models that feature modern, simplistic interiors. Some Tesla models only have a large screen in the center of the instrument panel that controls almost every aspect of the vehicle.

The EQS “will have to have a distinctive stamp to stand out. I think giving people that very futuristic feeling that you’re really driving something different will be appealing to some buyers,” Caldwell said. “But I think Tesla’s simplistic design has made a lot of people very happy.”

The exterior of the EQS features a design similar to traditional S-Class siblings, but a little more aggressive with respect to the front of the vehicle. A special “Edition One” presented by the company features a black and silver two-tone paint all over the car.

The car is the first EV of a new vehicle platform for Mercedes-Benz. It also has a new generation of batteries with a significantly higher energy density, which allows more autonomy.

The first models to arrive in the United States will offer up to 516 horsepower and 611 pound-feet of torque. The all-electric range of the vehicles is expected to be about 770 kilometers.

For technology, the vehicle has a set of safety and comfort functions, including a new driver assistance system that can control the speed and braking of the vehicle, as well as assist in other functions such as changing lanes or keep the car in your lane. The system is more controller-controlled than other Tesla and General Motors systems.

The EQS will also include an available augmented reality system, including the front view, that projects three-dimensional graphics, such as arrows on the screens, to show drivers where to go.

The EQS is part of Mercedes-Benz’s “Ambition 2039” initiative which includes more than half of the cars it sells with electric drive systems, including fully electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.

Mercedes-Benz is in a race with other legacy carmakers to launch new electric vehicles to catch up with Tesla, an industry leader, which accounted for the majority of all-electric sales in the United States. They also anticipate a lot of new competitors like Lucid, which plans to launch a luxury EV later this year.

“I think Mercedes Benz will do a great job in electric vehicles,” said Brian Moody, executive editor of Autotrader. He said they should be a formidable competitor to Tesla, which he attributes to really showing the auto industry “what people really wanted when it comes to electric vehicles.”

“They didn’t want any economic box,” he said. “They want a high-performance, very luxurious car and they will pay for it.”