Mercedes-Benz Reveals EQ Electric Sub-Brand

Mercedes-Benz Generation EQ Concept (Credit: Mercedes-Benz)

Mercedes-Benz looks to finally be leaping into the electric vehicle market in a big way. At the Paris Motor Show, the automaker unveiled EQ, a new sub-brand of electrified models.

The great thing is EQ isn’t just about making EVs. Mercedes-Benz says it will involve an entire “ecosystem” of products, services and other innovations aimed at making electric vehicle ownership easier and more practical. That’s an area where Tesla has exceled, at least to an extent, thanks in large part to its Supercharger network.

Apparently, EQ stands for “Electrified Intelligence.” We’ll see just how smart of a move this is as Mercedes-Benz starts bringing some actual vehicles to market. The big question that’s on everyone’s minds is how the German brand will fare against Tesla. What people should be asking is how EQ will perform against not only Tesla, but the many other brands that are working on luxury EVs at the moment. Things are about to get competitive and interesting in that part of the market.

We should start seeing EQ models by 2020. The first vehicle will be an SUV. We caught a glimpse of what that would look like with the Generation EQ “coupe” SUV. The wilder styling elements will probably be dropped for production, but it does show the direction Mercedes-Benz is looking to explore.