The electric equivalent of the Mercedes GLS will debut in 2022 on the dedicated EVA plastform and does not yet have a definitive name, being named only Mercedes EQS SUV.
Mercedes has officially announced that the new EQS electric luxury sedan will debut in August 2021 and that it is not an electric S-Class but a different model built on its own architecture – EVA platform. On this architecture three other cars will be built: EQE, EQE SUV and EQS SUV.
From the very few photos with the camouflaged car published by Mercedes itself (the car from the left in the photo below) it can be seen that the Mercedes EQS SUV will not have a silhouette as tall as the GLS, nor the boxy shape. Electric propulsion has forced the adoption of more aerodynamic shapes and the EQS SUV will be not so tall and will have more aerodynamic shape.
Mercedes says that EQE (E-Class’s electrical equivalent), EQS SUV and EQE SUV (GLE’s electrical equivalent) will appear shortly after EQS but none of the three models are in Mercedes’ 2021 model plan so as Mercedes told us. Therefore, the Mercedes EQS SUV will not appear before 2022 and will compete among others with the BMW iX which launches in December 2021 and with the Tesla Model X.
The website www.topelectricsuv.com has released a rendering of the future EQS SUV that confirms our design assumptions.
As in the case of the Mercedes EQS we expect the top version to develop a power of up to 500 kW. Most likely, as in the case of EQS, there will be an AMG version, which was confirmed by Philipp Schiemer, the new AMG boss. Due to the higher aerodynamic drag than the EQS, the range will not reach 700 km but will be around 600 km according to the WLTP (up to 300 miles according to the EPA) to be competitive with the BMW iX which promises the same values.
The top version will have two engines, one at each axle and a two-speed gearbox at the rear axle as in the case of the Porsche Taycan. All the versions will use the 800V network so we expect a a relatively short charging time of the battery that will have around 100 kWh in the top version.
From our information, the EQS SUV will take over the interior from EQS, which is very similar to the concept Mercedes Vision EQS presented in Frankfurt in the fall of 2019, but also to the interior of the new S-Class.
The EQS SUV will be produced at the Mercedes plant in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where the GLS SUV is also produced.
