This week, Mercedes-Benz has unveiled a handful of electrical vehicles (EVs), consisting of a battery-powered model of its iconic E-Class sedan. They have all been manufacturing cars, to be had for buy withinside the subsequent 12 months.And right here we are, bothering to inform you approximately a idea vehicle as well.
Why bother? Because this one alerts some thing essential approximately the destiny of the world’s oldest automaker.
A Timeless Vehicle Meets the Future
The G-Class, now and again referred to as the G-Wagon, is the alternative Mercedes icon. It’s the off-roader. The one they didn’t even import to the U.S. at the start due to the fact Mercedes executives idea its hard man or woman could intervene with Americans’ picture of Mercedes as a luxurious marque.
The Geländewagen (that’s “terrain automobile”) is a boxy, ladder-frame, stay-rear-axle off-avenue beast first evolved as a navy automobile. Designers later draped it in supple leather-based because it advanced into a standing image and a go-everywhere automobile that has saved its conventional seems seeing that its advent however received a greater pricey cabin with every new iteration.
If Mercedes engineers should flip that into a powerful EV, that might be news.
Here is what they propose.
The Mercedes-Benz EQG is formally now no longer a manufacturing vehicle. Mercedes calls it a “near-manufacturing study.”
Four Wheels, Four Motors
It makes use of a few old-faculty recognise-a way to get its motive force out of any situation. It rides on a ladder frame, for instance, like a pickup truck. But it marries that conventional engineering with generation no different Mercedes electric powered has used to date. Namely, there’s an electric powered motor for every wheel, in place of simply one or installed to axles. That need to supply it excellent off-avenue capability, as it may effortlessly alter the torque at every wheel to make the maximum of the to be had grip.
Mercedes has given no trace as to the variety or strength of the EQG. It keeps that stay rear axle. There’s records right here to honor.
A Body That Honors its Legacy
That records is plain withinside the bodywork. The EQG is unmistakably a G-Wagon, with the utilitarian, tall-greenhouse appearance which you expect. But it’s made cutting-edge with considerable lights elements. Simple spherical headlights are mentioned in LED piping, as is the fake grille. The rear-installed container that seems like it hides the spare tire (it simply homes the charging cable) has its very own LED strip. Even the roof rack is a lights element – white up front, crimson withinside the back.
Mercedes hasn’t given the click a glimpse in the EQG. We don’t recognise whether or not they’ve controlled to provide a rugged-searching take at the massive show display this is the point of interest of different Mercedes EVs. But it’s tough to assume that the EQG isn’t a preview of a manufacturing version, with Mercedes transferring towards all-electric powered services in lots of markets.
Headed for Production?
Dr. Emmerich Schiller, Managing Director of Mercedes-Benz G GmbH and Head of the Off-Road Vehicle Product Division, suggestions the automaker’s hand a bit.
“In its greater than 40-12 months version records, the G-Class has usually used the maximum cutting-edge and appropriate power generation on the time,” he says. “Against the heritage of our ‘Electric only’ strategy, the electrification of this off-avenue legend is definitely the logical subsequent step – and an clearly captivating project. Our icon is and remains ‘more potent than time’ in each respect.”
