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Mercedes-Benz To Put The EQS And S-Class Under One Name
The Mercedes-Benz company is changing its range of luxury cars, and one of them is that this German manufacturer puts the EQS and S-Class models under one common name.
Mercedes plans to continue producing the S-Class with internal combustion engines although it was once considered to replace it with electric versions, however, this change will happen when the eighth generation S-Class comes out, which will be in 2030.
“In the future, there will be two S-Classes, one with ICE and the other with electric drive,” said Mercedes director Ola Kallenius
That’s why the EQS name is disappearing, while the S-Class lives on. The models will look similar on the outside and inside and will be based on different platforms. The electric S-Class will use the MB: EA Large platform, and the “conventional” upgraded version of the current MRA platform.
Mercedes does something similar with the G-Class. Today, the G-Class can be had with ICE and an electric motor, but they are almost identical in appearance.
The question arises as to why Mercedes is making this change. Sales haven’t been doing great lately, with S-Class deliveries down 37 percent in the year’s first three months. The company even reduced production at Factory 56 in Sindelfingen, Germany to just one shift.
Sales of electric vehicles are also not meeting targets. At Mercedes, they wanted more than 20 percent of the 2,043,800 cars sold worldwide in 2023 to be electric, but only 11 percent was achieved, even though sales of electric vehicles increased by 73 percent from 2022.
The company is adjusting its sales targets for electric and hybrid cars. The goal used to be that 50 percent of annual sales would be these types of vehicles by 2025, but now that goal has been moved to 2030.
This change is not happening only in Mercedes, because the entire car industry is recording a slower adoption of electric vehicles. In Europe, the number of electric vehicles on the roads increased by 2 percent in 2024 compared to the previous year. Other car manufacturers such as Audi, Ford and Porsche are also focusing more on ICE and hybrid cars.
It appears that the road to an electric future will be longer and bumpier than manufacturers previously thought. On the other hand, luxury car fans will have more choices when choosing their next car.
