Mercedes-Benz launches brand EQ in India

German luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz today launched its product and technology brand ‘EQ’ in India. It will be a dedicated electro mobility brand in the luxury segment and will launch its first product ‘EQC’ in April 2020.

Mercedes-Benz is establishing ‘Sustainable Luxury’ as its future roadmap in India and the launch of the brand ‘EQ’ will be an important pillar in that roadmap.

Mercedes-Benz India has confirmed that it will bring its all-electric sub-brand, the EQ to India this year, with the introduction of the EQC SUV in April. The all-electric SUV,  unveiled back in 2018 as the brand’s first series production EV will rival the  Audi e-tron and Jaguar I-Pace in India. To mark the announcement, Mercedes unveiled the EQC 'Edition 1886' at its plant in Chakan, Pune, in the presence of Martin Schwenk, managing director and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India and Santosh Iyer, vice-president, sales and marketing, Mercedes-Benz India .

Mercedes-Benz India is undertaking a host of sustainable initiatives in its production facility. By the end of this quarter, 45 percent of Mercedes-Benz India’s energy requirement will come from renewable resources, made possible with installation of over 4,000 solar panels. With this, Mercedes-Benz India will be able to produce around 1.6 MW/year and reduce 2,600 tons of CO2 per year. Mercedes-Benz cars are said to be 85 percent recyclable and 95 percent recoverable.

Martin Schwenk said, “As the inventors of the automobile and pioneers of luxury mobility in India, we are launching the brand ‘EQ’ that will establish luxury electric motoring in India. The ‘EQ’ brand is a key pillar of our ‘Sustainable Luxury’ objective and is the first dedicated luxury electric brand in India. We felt the time was right to introduce EQ brand in India and our first product for India will be the EQC EV. We are confident that EQ will lay a strong foundation for our electric ambition in India, which will see further expansion of our green cars portfolio and also for our future. With the launch of EQ, we firmly announce Mercedes-Benz’s arrival into the new era of electromobility. We want the EQ brand to create an ecosystem in which electric mobility is reliable, simple and at the same time exciting. The ‘EQC Edition 1886’ illustrates the progressive design, exciting driving dynamics and a range more than suitable for daily use. Long-term, worry-free vehicle use is the sole focus for us in launching the EQ brand in India.”

The EQC comes with an 80 kWh lithium-ion battery powering 2 asynchronous motors. The vehicle is said to have an all-wheel-drive system. Mercedes-Benz has confirmed that the vehicle has a power output of 408 hp and a peak torque of 760 Nm. The green Merc can zip from 0-100kph in 5.1 seconds and has a  range of 445 to 471km.

Also read: New Mercedes-Benz EQC: all-electric SUV revealed

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