EQ may be ‘RIP’ from ’24 with MB’s CEO keen to replace ICE with EVs.
Sources have told Handelsblatt the Mercedes-Benz board is considering dropping the EQ sub-brand from 2024 when it launches a new range of small electric vehicles.
The move to eventually eliminate the EQ sub-brand, introduced only in 2019 with the GLC-based EQC electric crossover, is reportedly due to the automaker focussing all of its efforts on EV development.
If all model lines will one day be replaced by electric models, the reasoning goes, there’s no longer a need for a separate electric sub-brand.
Replying to an inquiry from Reuters, a Mercedes-Benz spokesperson hinted the report wasn’t far from the truth.
“With the goal of our parent brand Mercedes-Benz becoming fully electric by the end of the decade, we will adapt the positioning of the vehicles and thus also the use of the brand in line with the times, but it is too early for details on this at the moment,” the spokesperson told the news wire.
Mercedes-Benz has committed to becoming an electric-only brand by 2030, but only “where market conditions allow”.
Over the last few years, Mercedes-Benz has spent considerable time, effort and money to bring a full range of EVs to the market.
These include models like the EQA, EQB, EQC, EQT and EQV that are based on platforms originally designed for internal combustion engines, while more recent models, like the EQS sedan, EQS SUV, EQE sedan and EQE SUV, ride on a dedicated EV architecture.
We don’t know when, or if, these existing models will be renamed. While some manufacturers wait until a model changeover to adopt a new naming structure, Mercedes-Benz is no stranger to renaming vehicles part-way through their lifecycle.
In 2015, the company announced it would rearrange its alphabet soup such that crossover and specialty models were aligned with its core sedan and hatch range. As such, the SLK became the SLC, and the ML turned into the GLE.
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