The EQC offers a powerful yet zero-emission choice

Exactly two years ago, Mercedes-Benz premiered its electric mobility capability, adding the catchy tagline ‘Electric now has a Mercedes’.

The EV SUV EQC was unveiled at the Artipelag art museum, Stockholm. This was a strong message meant for companies like Tesla, who have enjoyed market leadership in premium electric cars.

The EQC stands for an impressive combination of comfort, quality and day-to-day suitability, and Mercedes is betting big on this product in its global portfolio. India being an important market for Mercedes, the company is launching the EQC 400 SUV with similar specifications very soon.

Powered by a 80kWh battery with high voltage of around 408V, the EQC battery pack has a modular system design with 384 cells and has protection against possible damage from all sides and underneath. The lithium-ion battery weighs 652 kg, which is around one-third of the total weight of the 2.5-tonne EQC 400.

Despite its weight of 2.5 tonnes, this silent beast sprints from 0-100 kmph in just 5.1 seconds, with a total power of 408 hp and a total torque of 760 Nm. And, all these without any CO2 emissions (0 g/km) and a range of 452 km.

India-focussed specs

Design-wise, the EQC has some India-focussed specs like the light alloy wheel with blue outlays, manmade leather fabric for the seats and 64-colour ambient cabin lighting.

On the safety side, it has seven airbags, a blind spot assist, attention assist, pre-safe system, electronic stability programme and active brake assist.

Mercedes has taken care of all aspects and has tested the EQC around the world, including India, to check its endurance across various terrains and temperatures. Just for a reference, it has test driven the EQC 4.5 million km across continents — Europe, North America, Asia and Africa — with 200 prototypes in 50°C, and in polar regions. It has been tested rigorously in Germany, Finland, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Dubai, South Africa, the US and China.

The EQC 400 is the first from Mercedes in its vouch of ‘sustainable luxury’ — transformation to emission-free mobility in which it has set a target to make more than 10 pure electric cars across all segments by 2022, which means its best selling cars like the C-Class and E-Class in India could be electrified very soon. The company has a sales target of 15-25 per cent from pure electric models by 2025 globally and 50 per cent from pure hybrid and all EVs by 2030.

The company is also confident of making a statement in electric mobility in India with the EQC. As Santosh Iyer, Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, Mercedes-Benz India, puts it: “The EQC remains a very special vehicle in our expansive portfolio as it kickstarts Mercedes-Benz India’s shift to e-mobility and to ‘sustainable luxury’. We believe the EQC with its superior design, high functionality for daily use, outstanding safety and comfort, together with our readiness for creating a complete ecosystem, will offer unparalleled convenience to our customers.”

Mercedes-Benz India is also taking care of all the installations of the charging solution of the EQC, free of cost, for the customers — first by a physical visit of the house to check the wall box and with options for slow, medium and fast charging of the vehicle.

While the slow charging will take around 21 hours, the medium would take around 10 hours and fast charging would take around 90 minutes.

But, being an EV, the EQC does not leave behind any feature that a combustion engine vehicle has — whether it is safety, driving modes (EQC has five driving patterns) or power. The EQC also features the latest NTG 6 MBUX ‘Hey Mercedes’, the voice assistance system.

To be priced around ₹1.20 crore, the EQC 400 will be competing with the likes of the Audi e-Tron, BMW iX3 and Jaguar i-Pace.

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