Mercedes Benz Joins The Race For Electric Car Dominance

Mercedes-Benz unveiled have unveiled the EQA crossover. The vehicle will be the automakers latest electric vehicle as part of a slate of new EVs that are being planned for the coming years. The compact SUV will have a range of fewer than 300 miles, a 66.5kWh battery pack, and a netlist price of $48,442).

The EQA, which is based on the German automaker’s GLA-class of SUVs, is scheduled to go into production this year in Europe. The EQA, which is launching as EQA 250, will have a 66.5kWh battery pack, which is slightly above average for the EVs on the road today. Tesla’s biggest battery is 100kWh, available in the Model S and Model X, which is one of the biggest batteries currently available. This very stat is sounding a warning off to Tesla, that a new heavy hitter is in the market, gunning for their market share.

Mercedes says it plans to release additional variants of the crossover, including an all-wheel-drive version with an additional electric powertrain that increases the power output to 200kW or more, while also offering a version with a range of more than 500 kilometres (310 miles) based on the WLTP standard.

Interested buyers will have options when it comes to the EQA’s interior. They can either choose two 7-inch displays for both the instrument cluster and main infotainment screen or a widescreen variant with two 10.25-inch displays. It won’t have Mercedes-Benz’s recently revealed, mammoth, pillar-to-pillar, 56-inch touchscreen that will debut in the upcoming EQS luxury electric sedan.

Mercedes-Benz sees the EQA as an “entry point” into the automaker’s growing family of electric vehicles. The question is whether the German automaker can compete for EV-curious shoppers when Volkswagen, Tesla, BMW, and others appear to be progressing at a faster pace.