Even though Mercedes-Benz’s EQ line of electric cars has great streamlining, they could be more appealing and popular. The time it takes to sell a Mercedes-EQ is almost twice as long as it takes to sell a rival BMW EV. Dealers say this is because Mercedes-EQs aren’t as “aspirational” as cars with internal combustion engines. Mercedes plans to fix this soon by giving the EQS a stock grille that looks like the one on the S-Class. This may be a return to the brand’s classic style. Ola Kallenius, CEO of Mercedes, is said to have revealed the addition during an earnings call with Autocar. Since the beginning, the EQS and all other electric cars have had a grille that looks like a prism and has a big, clear Mercedes logo on it. Mercedes wants to bring back the logo on the hood and add a newly available grille that looks like the one on the S-Class in order to boost sales. Below is a slide from the talk that gives a sneak peek at the decision. “Some [customers] will want to keep a more sporty look and have the star integrated into the panel, and some we believe will want to have the more traditional look,” Källenius said. The change is likely part of a midlife refresh that will also add “executive seats” in the back and a battery that lasts longer. The 108-kilowatt-hour battery in the EQS SUV is said to have been upgraded to 118 kilowatt-hours, which could give the longest-legged type a range of about 380 miles in the US. The better EQS is set to come out in June, most likely as a 2025 model. In the past, the S-class has predicted the direction of the car industry. Because of this, the EQS’s return to more traditional styling will likely affect the rest of Mercedes’s EQ series. (Or the whole market for electric cars.) However, Mercedes won’t have to do much to change the direction of the EQ collection. Many EQ goods still look bad to some people. Mercedes thought that the badly designed Hyperscreen would be a selling point, but the fact that the market is already full of premium EVs isn’t making more of them sell. At the time this was written, Mercedes had not replied to a question about whether or not other EQS grilles are available in the US.
