"The mobility of the future at Mercedes-Benz will stand on four pillars: Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Electric" said Mercedes CEO Dr Dieter Zetsche at Paris, standing in front of the new Generation EQ concept. Yes, while we were getting all in a tizz about the
GT R
GT Roadster
and a rather fetching brown
E-Class All-Terrain
, Mercedes was outlining pretty much its entire future for electric mobility. So while it may not be core PH news territory, it's worth explaining. Think how much interest there has been in the BMW
i3
i8
And away from the motor show stand
Conveniently, the four pillars outlined by Dr Zetsche form a nice little acronym too: CASE. Mercedes is in no doubt as to their importance either, saying they will "shape the future of Mercedes-Benz cars." Examples of this already in place are the autonomous driving tech in the new
E-Class
, the Car2Go Smart sharing service launched in 2007 and a commitment to have more than 10 electric vehicles on sale by 2025.
The significance of the Paris concept is that it represents the first time all those pillars have been brought together. Zetsche: "To guarantee the logical fusion of all four future trends, we are bringing together the respective activities in a new, legally separate entity." This will be 'EQ', which stands for Electric Intelligence and under which all Mercedes' electric mobility work will take place. So yes, very much a direct competitor to the BMW i cars. It's beyond cars too, Mercedes talking of a "comprehensive electrified ecosystem" including storage and charging solutions. There's a billion euros being invested in it...
Can we have this interior soon please Mercedes?
Generation EQ is the forerunner of the production EQ brand but, as is often the way with Mercedes concepts, there's plenty of tangible stuff to take from it. The "electrified look" to the styling doesn't appear too far removed from the current cars and, while the interior is fairly futuristic with its entirely touch-based layout, it is said to point towards Mercedes' "future of user interaction."
In fact, of more interest around the Generation EQ right now is what's beneath its "reinterpretation of our design philosophy". And no, that's not even the powertrain. For the SUV concept Mercedes claims up to 402hp and 516lb ft, with a motor on each axle and the batteries in the floor. Range is up to 500km (310 miles) and 0-62mph should take less than five seconds. Predictably there's talk of new charging methods too, including households storing their own surplus solar power in a Merc energy storage unit to charge the car...
No, what's more interesting is what the Generation EQ is built on. Much like the VW I.D. in fact, the Mercedes uses a modular architecture that will form the basis of saloons, coupes, cabrios and SUVs. Mercedes says it's scalable "in every respect", with different wheelbase and track widths as well as the location of electronics and batteries. It's built from a combination of steel, aluminium and carbon fibre.
Beyond that the Generation EQ is the usual combination of motor show pretence ("the design of the visionary show car, which has been reduced to the essentials, reveals an alluring progressivity" says designer Gordon Wagener), plus the latest autonomous and connected driving technology. Car-to-X communication is particularly notable, the Generation EQ able to exchange information with other cars and infrastructure. One step closer to accident-free roads, apparently...
Remember the BMW Vision Efficient Dynamics - to later become the i8 - was first seen at Frankfurt back in 2009, so it will be interesting to see how swiftly the concept can become production reality. One thing is for sure though: electric cars are most certainly a big part of Mercedes' future. Let's just hope they can keep the V8s going for a bit longer too.
