Mercedes pins hopes on dedicated BEV platform

Germany’s Mercedes-Benz is backing a combination of bottom-up model development and a focus on segment and customer need for the success of its new EQE and EQS BEV models.        

“Our EQC, and also EQA and EQB, are based on platforms that have been used for ICE cars beforehand,” Daniel Nolte, strategy product manager for the EQE SUV and EQS SUV, tells EV inFocus. “Now we are building cars on a dedicated battery electric vehicle platform.

“In this process, it was decided which cars do we need,” Nolte continues. As a result, the firm opted for two sedans and two SUVs.

“We are serving different segments — full-size with EQE and large size with the EQS models,” says Nolte. In particular for EQS, the firm is “keeping in mind that there might be some customers willing to change from an ICE car, mainly the GLS, to step into the electric world”.

Under the auspices of the firm’s Ambition 2039 initiative, Mercedes is “transforming” its portfolio, Nolte says. “We will be ready to go fully electric by the end of this decade — wherever market conditions allow — and we will have an offering in every segment.

“Every customer that may currently drive an ICE or a plug-in has the chance and the possibility to drive an all-electric Mercedes. I think that is a very good strategy and very clearly focusing on customer needs,” Nolte continues.

He concedes that Mercedes’ approach is not necessarily groundbreaking — “maybe not so different than some other OEMs”. But he does contrast it with peers such as BMW that “still try to stay open also to combustion engines and plug-ins”. “Personally speaking, I think going fully electric is the strategy that we should strive for,” says Nolte.