Remember the Mercedes-Benz EQC? It’s the German luxury automaker’s first-ever electric SUV and also the first model to bear the “EQ” moniker that’s now slapped on the back of cars like the EQE and EQS, both in sedan and SUV form.
Or rather, it was, because the EQC has been dead for a year and we only found out now thanks to a report from our sister site, Motor1. As per Jan Weber, International EQ-Product Communications at Mercedes-Benz, the EQC was discontinued in the second quarter of 2023 as planned.
Nobody bothered to tell the world when that happened, however.
The future of EVs at Mercedes-Benz
Even though its first mass-produced electric crossover is no longer among us, Mercedes-Benz has a solid lineup of future EVs planned. A new generation EQC sedan is set for next year, followed by a couple of crossovers, a wagon and a baby G-Class powered by electrons.
The car’s short lifespan was briefly under the spotlight when a July 2022 report from the German edition of Business Insider mentioned the EQC’s scheduled discontinuation in May 2023, but that was pretty much the end of the story.
If you’re wondering why this is the first time you’re reading about this car, rest assured, you’re not the first one. The Mercedes-Benz EQC never made it to the United States and was instead limited primarily to Europe and China—where it was far from a best-seller. According to sales figures from GoodCarBadCar, the EQC sold just a little over 51,000 units in Europe from 2019 to 2022, while in China it did even worse with fewer than 14,000 units in the same period.
Based on the same platform as the combustion-powered GLC, the EQC was powered by a 402-horsepower dual-motor setup that drew juice from an 80-kilowatt-hour battery pack. Even though it was never sold in the U.S., Mercedes-Benz wanted to, at least initially, so the EQC got an EPA range rating of 220 miles, whereas the WLTP figure stood at 259 miles on a full charge.
The EV was delayed for over a year and in the end, the German automaker decided against bringing it stateside, “following a comprehensive review of market developments.” In other words, they thought it wouldn’t sell.
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With all being said, however, the Mercedes-Benz EQC is set to return as an all-electric sedan based on the newly developed MMA platform which can also support combustion powertrains. The name is not yet official, but spy shots of prototypes suggest the upcoming electric sedan will be roughly the same size as a BMW 3 Series and Audi A4.
Set to debut next year, the next-gen EQC will be the first of four initial EVs on the MMA architecture, with the others being a pair of crossovers and a wagon that could replace the current GLA, GLB and CLA Shooting Brake.
Meanwhile, reeling from the unpopularity of its EQ models, Mercedes is rethinking its EV plans overall, investing in more internal combustion engines and delaying other electric platform investments.
