Mercedes has made it very clear that it has a high-end electric luxury sedan coming by the name of EQS. Not only have we seen the production car in spy shots a few times, we've even gone for a spin in the concept car. Less publicized has been its little sibling, the Mercedes-Benz EQE. While it looks extremely similar to the EQS, there are a number of distinct differences, chief among them the size.

This is all made particularly clear in the above footage of the car testing in Sweden. It's alongside a few S-Class test mules, which shows off that the EQE is notably smaller. Also comparing images of it with the EQS, we can see that the proportions are a bit different. The side windows aren't as long, and the roofline drops back down much more dramatically to the tail than the more elegant EQS. This car lacks the fancy flush-fitting pop-out door handles of the high-end EQS, too.

Besides giving us a good look at the size of the EQE, we also get a nice look at one of the features it will be packing: four-wheel steering. At about the 4-minute mark, we can see the car being pulled out of a parking space, and the rear wheels provide a large amount of opposite steering angle to the front for tight maneuverability. This isn't the first time Mercedes has offered four-wheel steering, as the AMG GT coupe is available with it, but it's new for a Mercedes electric car. The EQC crossover lacks such a feature.

We expect that the EQE will probably share the dual-motor powertrain of the EQC, which makes 402 horsepower and 561 pound-feet of torque. There's also the possibility of more powerful versions, since the bigger EQS is rumored to get higher-output motors. It will likely share the same battery pack, too. In the EQC, we're expecting the U.S. range to be a bit over 200 miles. The EQE with the same battery would probably go a bit farther, simply due to its seemingly more aerodynamic shape and potentially lighter weight.

Mercedes-Benz AG took the wraps off what it is calling a “new strategic course,” pursuing “profitable growth in the luxury segment and target leadership in EVs and car software.” Ola Källenius, Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz AG chairman of the board of management, speaking at a virtual investor and analyst conference, said that while Mercedes has recently been doing many things right, including design, product engineering, brand rejuvenation, and sales growth, the company has not yet “lived up to our full potential in terms of turning volume success into profit growth.” Thus the new strategy.

“We intend to build the world’s most desirable cars,” Kallenius said. “It’s about leveraging our strengths as a luxury brand to grow economic value and enhancing the mix and positioning of our product portfolio. We will unlock the full potential of our unique sub-brands—AMG, Maybach, G and EQ.”

He said the company will cut costs by avoiding “non-core activities to focus on winning where it matters: dedicated electric vehicles and proprietary car software.
“With this new strategy we are announcing our clear commitment to the full electrification of our product portfolio and our determination to ensure the business is fully carbon-neutral, in line with our Ambition 2039 target,” he said.

Benz’s plan to lead in EVs and car software includes some ambitious product-development and technology targets. The company announced four new EVs based on its upcoming large-car Electric Vehicle Architecture (EVA). The EQS sedan comes first, hitting showrooms next year with about a 435-mile range target and level 3 autonomy. The EQE, EQS-SUV and EQE-SUV follow.

Mercedes is expanding the AMG, Maybach and (as previously reported), the G sub brands to include EVs, and starting in 2025, more models will be added to Mercedes’ EV portfolio on the second dedicated EV platform, the Modular Architecture (MMA) designed for compact and medium-sized cars.


The company also announced the Vision EQXX technology program, designed to build a new EV “with spectacular efficiency and range.” The Vision EQXX is going to be developed by an engineering group in Stuttgart and engineers from the company’s F1 program in the U.K., who bring eMotors expertise along with quicker development. While Vision EQXX is a technology program, the company explained, it is expected to result in innovations that will make their way into series production cars, and quickly. Mercedes said it is developing the next-gen eMotors in house with what it calls “key strategic partners” CATL, Farasis and Sila Nano. New materials and production processes will increase range, reduce charging time and cost, the company said.

Mercedes officials also said its break-even point is too high and it is going to take “significant new steps to reduce costs” more than 20% by 2025, including R&D and personnel.

Mercedes-Benz is recalling 12,799 units of the GLE and the GLS equipped with a backlit star on the grille. It noticed a problem with one of the wiring loom's grounds can deactivate key functions, like the power steering.

Sold as a $500 option, the illuminated three-pointed star is marketed as a way to make the GLE and the GLS more distinctive at night, but it can apparently do a lot more. Mercedes explained the logo's electrical ground might not be installed properly, which in theory would simply make it not light up, but several other systems share the same connection, including the power steering control unit, the driver-side headlight, and the wiper motor. Without a clean and tight ground, none of these features work, so the risk of an accident increases.

According a bulletin published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the recall campaign includes 9,642 examples of the 2020 GLE and 3,157 units of the 2020 GLS. 350, 450, and 580 models are affected. All were built in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, between December 8, 2018, and February 6, 2020. Mercedes explained it began looking into the defect in December 2019, and it's not aware of any injuries or accidents linked to it. It noted the power steering, wiper, or light failures are accompanied by warning chimes.

Owners will need to take their SUV to the nearest Mercedes-Benz service center, where a technician will relocate the ground to the proper location. The recall campaign is scheduled to start on December 8, 2020.

Logo a no-go

Mercedes-Benz isn't the only carmaker that offers a light-up logo as an option, and it's not the only company that's had to recall cars due to the feature. On the other side of the pond, Rolls-Royce was recently forced to recall the vehicles it built with an illuminated Spirit of Ecstasy statue because regulators in the European Union decided this feature is illegal. It's light pollution, according to the EU.

By law, the company is forced to disable the lighting element as quickly as possible. It will give owners of affected cars one of three solutions: they'll be able to request a refund, order a silver-plated replacement, or choose another item from the list of options. Rolls-Royce charged £3,500 (about $4,600) for the logo, and a handful of cars were built with it.

IMMENDINGEN, Germany — As Tesla touts the cutting-edge nature of its new Full Self Driving software, rival Mercedes-Benz says it has developed a similar system but stops short of allowing members of the public to take it on urban roads.

The Germans, pioneers in developing advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), are taking a step-by-step approach to releasing new technology, waiting for their own engineers, rather than the general public, to validate their system.

Both approaches — one conservative and one radical in nature — are designed to push highly automated driving on to public roads, a step that could massively reduce accidents, since computers have faster accident-avoidance reflexes than humans.

Advanced driver assistance systems can provide steering, braking and acceleration support under limited circumstances, generally on highways. Carmakers have refrained from relying on their technology to let cars navigate urban inner-city traffic.

Tesla broke this tradition last week when it released its FSD software which allows its computer-powered cars to practice their reflexes in inner-city traffic situations, with a warning that its cars "May Do the Wrong Thing at the Worst Time."

Mercedes does not allow members of the public to test still-experimental systems. Its engineers need to pass an eligibility exam to become test drivers, and another one for testing automated driving systems, the carmaker said.

Rather than force their customers to put their trust in processors, software and the ability of machines to learn over time, the Germans want their cars to be validated by engineers so that they remain predictable for owners.

"We do not want blind trust. We want informed trust in the car. The customer needs to know exactly what the car can and cannot do," a Mercedes spokesman told Reuters on the sidelines of the carmaker's test track in Immendingen, Germany.

"The worst thing would be if the car gets into a complex situation and there was ambiguity over whether the car is in control or not," he said.

This is why the Stuttgart-based carmaker, owned by Daimler AG, is emphasizing its decades-old experience of automated driver assistance systems as it seeks to gain global regulatory approval for its own Drive Pilot system which boasts level 3 automation.

Level 3 means the driver can legally take their eyes off the wheel and the company, Daimler in this case, would have to assume insurance liability, depending on the jurisdiction.

The new Tesla system forces customers to take responsibility for any crash.
Mercedes-Benz started using camera-based systems in 2009, offering traffic-light recognition and lane-keeping assistance systems, switching to stereo cameras in 2013, to add depth of field and pedestrian recognition for emergency braking functions.

It was on a joint development project between the Tesla Model S and the Mercedes-Benz electric B-Class that Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, learned about camera and radar-based assistance systems, senior engineers familiar with the project told Reuters.

Mercedes plans to launch Drive Pilot next year and is pitching it as an evolution of its Distronic system, launched in 2013, which uses cameras and radar to keep cars in lane and at a distance to the car in front.

Drive Pilot will add a new sensor: Lidar, to cross-reference data gathered by radar, ultrasonic sensors, high-definition mapping, radar and cameras.

"It is a paradigm change from Distronic, but it is a strategic evolution. For us this is the logical next step and it is not shooting for the moon," said Michael Decker, manager of automated driving at Mercedes-Benz Cars, while standing on the sidelines of the company's testing campus in Immendingen, where the Mercedes hones autonomous driving systems.

Decker, behind the wheel of the new S-Class, drives the car on to a stretch of road mocked up to replicate an autobahn and selects Drive Pilot. The car glides seamlessly, providing gentle braking and steering inputs to keep its place in moving traffic.

"I spend most of my time dealing with edge cases, those special situations that we need to have under control," he said. The Mercedes Drive Pilot will only work at up to 60 kilometers an hour, and reach higher speeds once the legal framework allows.

It will function only on highways in Germany from mid-next year onward, if a new law is passed.

"If the car crosses the border into France, it will disengage, because we use high-definition mapping as one of our validation systems, and France has not created the legal framework for allowing this system to operate," Decker said.

Although Mercedes engineers are aware of Tesla's more aggressive approach to marketing their systems, they appear unruffled.

"Yes. We always followed this path. And we now see that we have the right strategy," Decker said.

"What is paramount here is safety. This is about having a mature system. Mercedes safety standards stand over and above everything, including speed."

FRANKFURT — Daimler will be a smaller company five years from now, focused on capturing recurring revenues with software-based services as Mercedes-Benz seeks to redefine luxury in an era of electric self-driving cars, Chief Executive Ola Kaellenius said.

"The next five years we will become a smaller company," Kaellenius told a Reuters Events broadcast on Thursday. "We will have a fundamental change in the industrial footprint on the powertrain side," he said.
Jobs will disappear because it takes less time to build an electric car than a conventional gasoline or diesel version.

That's because an electric car's battery and motor have only 200 components, compared with at least 1,400 parts found in a combustion engine and transmission, according to analysts at ING.

The shift away from fossil fuel requires the carmaker to double down on efficiency so it can free up resources to build electric and self-driving cars, Kallenius said.

"We are hiring a lot of new software engineers, experts in battery chemistry, electrification," he explained.

Making Daimler smaller also fits with a new era where luxury no longer defines itself through opulence and excess but also through sustainability and efficiency.

"There is no doubt in our minds that the footprint that this produce leaves on this Earth needs to be smaller. That is part of the modern luxury promise," Kaellenius said.

Mercedes-Benz is tapping engineering expertise from its Formula One team to build the EQXX, an electric vehicle which aims to be the most efficient vehicle capable of taking passengers from Stuttgart, Germany, to Marseille, France, on a single charge.

"It is a pre-development project to introduce new technologies," Kaellenius said.

Daimler also wants to offer customers new digital services so it can make money with new, recurring sources of revenue such as assisted driving functionalities and infotainment services when it unveils a new vehicle car operating system in 2024.

"Think about it like an iPhone," Kallenius said, explaining that with new software updates, new services and functions can be included. "You can add to it," he said. "That’s the beauty of it."

To invest in digital tech, Daimler plans to tap growth in China, potentially by building new models in the market where Mercedes-Benz sees the biggest growth potential over the next 10 years.

"If we have individual models which reach a critical mass in China ... that’s possible," Kaellenius said, adding that no decision has been made to localise production of new models.

"It depends on how the market develops," he said.

BERLIN — German car maker Daimler said on Tuesday it will cooperate with China's Geely to build next-generation combustion engines for use in hybrid vehicles.

Efforts to share development costs come as the growth potential for combustion engines faces the twin threat of the COVID-19 crisis and stricter fuel-efficiency and emission rules.

"The companies plan to develop a highly efficient modular engine," a spokesman for Daimler said, adding that it would be used in hybrid drivetrains and manufactured in Europe and China.


The modular engine will be used in cars under different marques at Geely and Daimler, a person familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity as the companies are still in the early stages of developing the engine.

News of the alliance was a surprise to Daimler's works council at its factory in Untertuerkheim, which specializes in electric and gasoline powertrain assembly.

"We are speechless. There was not even a discussion about potential alternative manufacturing locations," said Michael Haeberle, the works council chief for Untertuerkheim.

"We have the ability to build four-cylinder engines in Untertuerkheim, but there were no talks about it."

Daimler said German factories will be retooled gradually to add electric drivetrains production.

Most of the next-generation combustion engines will be made in China, business daily Handelsblatt reported. The alliance with Geely, which owns a 9.69% stake in Stuttgart-based Daimler, means that parts of Daimler's existing partnership with Renault could be pared back.

A Renault source told Reuters that the Daimler-Geely project does not mean an end of cooperation between Daimler and Renault.

Citing Daimler sources, Handelsblatt said the Daimler-Geely pact would save the German carmaker a "triple-digit million sum" — implying an amount above 100 million euros ($119 million) and less than 1 billion euros.

Get ready for a tsunami of electric models from Mercedes-Benz in the next two years, as the automaker gets ready to launch six new EQ models by 2022. That's right: In just a couple of years, Mercedes-Benz will have more electric models in its lineup than Tesla, even if Tesla actually launches the Cybertruck.

The planned EQ lineup, getting a big boost in 2021, will largely mirror the gas- and diesel-engined Mercedes lineup, with the automaker offering a model in just about every major segment from the smallest to the largest. 2021 sees four new electric models debut, starting with the EQS luxury sedan, previewed in concept form in 2019.

Next year also sees the EQA pocket-sized sport utility start production. It is analogous in size to the GLA-Class, as well as the larger EQB, corresponding to the GLB-Class. It debuted just a short time ago in gasoline form.

"The Mercedes-EQ production network is ready for our electric offensive. We started this transformation several years ago and set up our plants with maximum flexibility," said Jörg Burzer, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz AG, Production and Supply Chain. "The Mercedes-EQ electric models are gradually being integrated into our existing vehicle plants worldwide. They come off the same lines as vehicles with combustion engines or plug-in hybrid drives. The same applies to all of our Mercedes-Benz car plants - a total of six on three continents. This concept is particularly advantageous because demand for electric and electrified vehicles is developing very differently by region and we can adjust our production planning accordingly on short notice. In this way we can manufacture exactly what our customers want."



The EQE sedan, the electric version of the E-Class positioned just below the EQS sedan, follows the two smaller SUVs. Taken together, these four new models join the EQC sport utility in production and on sale in Europe for the past few months, but whose U.S. debut had been pushed back to sometime in 2021.2022 sees two additional electric SUVs. The automaker calls them the EQS SUV, analogous in size to the GLS-Class, and the EQE SUV, an electric model roughly similar to the GLE-Class. Yes, these model names are identical to the EQS and EQE sedan -- something which seems like an unforced error since Mercedes was starting with a clean sheet -- but if you've already memorized all the others and know what they represent you're doing pretty well. The large EQS SUV and the midsize EQE SUV will be produced in the U.S., at Mercedes' Tuscaloosa, Alabama plant.



The EQE SUV will enter production in 2022 in the U.S. Some of these six new models have already started rolling off the assembly line, even though they haven't been seen undisguised in public. The small EQA sport utility is already in production at the Rastatt plant in Germany, and will have its world premiere on January 20 next year. Mercedes plans to start EQA production for the Chinese market at its Beijing plant in 2021 as well, for the domestic market there.

The EQB enters production in 2021 at two locations as well: Kecskemét, Hungary, and at Mercedes' BBAC plant in Beijing. Together with the EQA, these two smallish SUVs could very well comprise a significant chunk of all seven EQ models, because they'll be in production in two plants around the globe by the end of 2021 and because they'll be among the more affordable. So as advanced and capable as the EQS sedan will be, large electric sedans with sticker prices more than $100,000 are no longer where the electric car market is at the moment, even though that's where it was nearly a decade ago when the Tesla Model S entered production. Small SUVs, on the other hand, appear to have more momentum at the moment, even amid the pandemic.

"With the production launch of the electric compact SUV EQA at the Rastatt plant (Germany) and the current decision to locate EQB production in the Hungarian plant in Kecskemét, the company is taking further important steps toward making its product portfolio CO₂ neutral," the automaker noted. "The course has also been set toward 'Electric First' in the global powertrain production network as well. High-efficiency battery systems will also be manufactured and assembled within the production network."



The EQE sedan will be one of two sedans that the automaker will launch in the next two years, with the first being the EQS, due to be revealed in weeks. MERCEDES-BENZ AGThe EQE sedan, entering production in the second half of 2021, will be built in Bremen and will soon thereafter enter production in China as well for the local market. But if you've spotted a notable gap in the electric sedan lineup, that's because an electric version of the C-Class hasn't been announced yet. The EQC badge represents the GLC-sized electric sport utility which almost went on sale in the U.S. a year ago. So Mercedes won't quite have a Tesla Model 3 equivalent in the next couple of years, simply because it's focusing on sport utilities over sedans. This sounds like the right move at the moment, even though the Model 3 has proven to be very popular in Europe, to the point that Tesla is now building them in China and shipping them to Europe. But we do expect Mercedes to offer a small electric sedan down the line.

Speaking of SUVs, the EQS SUV and EQE SUV will land in 2022 and will be produced in the U.S. for all global markets, alongside the gasoline-engined models rolling out of Tuscaloosa. It remains to be seen how close in size and cargo capacity these two will be to their gas-engined siblings. Will Mercedes opt for something close in packaging to these existing models, or will it create some space between the gas and electric offerings? For now, these two have not been seen up close in prototype form, but we should have a pretty good sense of both by the second half of 2021.

"The Mercedes-Benz production network is global, digital and flexible, and ready for the upcoming electric offensive – thanks, of course, to our highly qualified and motivated employees worldwide," Burzer added. "We are now beginning a real Mercedes-EQ fireworks display. Six electric product launches by 2022 underscore the strength and competence of our Mercedes-Benz production sites worldwide. The production network will have a total of six Mercedes-EQ car locations. Local production of highly efficient battery systems plays a central role in the Mercedes-Benz strategy - coupled with a comprehensive sustainability concept that spans the entire life cycle of the battery all the way to recycling."

When Mercedes-Benz’s electric flagship EQS arrives this spring, it will have as an option a new Mercedes-Benz User Experience (MBUX) called MBUX Hyperscreen. Mercedes says the Hyperscreen is several steps ahead of what we’ve experienced so far in terms of technology and in fact the automaker calls it “both the brain and nervous system of the car.”

The Hyperscreen is not merely a floating screen above the center console like we’re used to with today’s MBUX systems. This baby is over 56 inches wide, stretching almost the entire width of the dash, pretty much from door to door. Sajjad Khan, member of the Mercedes Board of Management of and chief technology officer, says the Hyperscreen has learning-capable software and can continually get to know the customer better. He says the system “delivers a tailored, personalized infotainment and operating offering without the occupant needing to click or scroll anywhere.


The Hyperscreen is more than 56 inches long. “We analyzed the customer feedback of the first MBUX generation and asked ourselves: ‘What do people need and how do they interact in the car? Especially in an electric car?’ The goal was a concept without distraction of the driver or creating complicated operation,” Khan told us.

Mercedes says to help make road trips more entertaining the front-seat passenger also has their own display area with individualized content for up to seven profiles. If the passenger seat is not occupied the screen becomes what Benz calls a “digital decorative part,” or animated stars. Organic light-emitting diode technology (OLED) is used for the 17.7-inch central and 12.3 front passenger displays for a very high resolution image. OLED has individual image pixels that are self-luminous and the screen appears black when the car is switched off.

All the graphics are in a new blue/orange color scheme, and the classic cockpit display with two circular instruments has a new digital look.


Graphics are in a new blue/orange color scheme. Mercedes insists the MBUX Hyperscreen is intuitive and easy to operate, reducing operating steps thanks to artificial intelligence. Khan said the Hyperscreen can respond to voice commands and can even proactively display functions at the appropriate time for the user. Mercedes calls it “context-sensitive awareness,” and it is constantly optimized by changes in the surroundings and user behavior. Mercedes researched how customers have been using MBUX and learned navigation, radio/media and phone are used most often. So in the Hyperscreen, the navigation is always at the center of the screen. More than 20 more functions—from active massage to a birthday reminder—are automatically offered if they are relevant to the customer.
For example, if the EQS driver regularly uses the hot-stone massage function featured, the system learns this and automatically suggests the hot-stone massage function for the driver in colder temperatures. Khan also told us if you sell your EQS the next owner can reset the system to set up their own preferences.

Khan said the Hyperscreen will be available in Benz’s other upcoming EVs announced a couple weeks ago. “Of course the software is going to continue to get more advanced and the Hyperscreen will continue to have more and more functionality,” he told us. He added that as the functionality advances the Hyperscreen will get over-the-air updates.

Mercedes revealed the Hyperscreen leading up to next week’s virtual Consumer Electronics Show. The company showed the first MBUX generation at CES in Las Vegas in January 2018.

Remember when badges actually meant something? The short-lived SL 73 AMG came out in 1999 and it lived up to its name by offering a 7.3-liter engine. The V12 roadster of the R129 series was the most powerful product from Affalterbach at its launch, offering a massive 518 horsepower (386 kilowatts) and 553 pound-feet (750 Newton-meters) of torque.

Fast forward to 2021, Mercedes is dusting off the fabled "73" name for a new family of high-performance AMGs. The three-pointed star took the legal measure to secure the moniker back in February 2018 when it trademarked a number of "73" models, at least one of which will debut on a production car in the following months. Autocar claims to be in the know regarding the oily (and electric) bits of the new-era "73" cars.

Gaining an "e" at the end, the 73e models will all share a twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 engine with an electric motor believed to be largely borrowed from the zero-emissions Mercedes EQC crossover and EQV van. The e-motor will reportedly be good for as much as 201 horsepower (150 kW) and an instant torque of 268 lb-ft (363 Nm).

Combined with the conventional eight-cylinder engine, the Mercedes-AMG 73e cars will unleash "previously unattained levels of power and torque." In fact, we're hearing the cars will "at least match” the 805-hp muscle delivered by the AMG GT Concept introduced at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show. The combined torque should be enough to move mountains, with the British magazine claiming the electrified AMGs will develop a massive 740 lb-ft (1,003 Nm).

The GT73e should be the first to break cover and offer neck-snapping acceleration by sprinting to 62 mph (100 km/h) in less than three seconds en route to more than 200 mph (322 km/h). The Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid rival will be followed by an AMG S73e based on the latest S-Class and also by an AMG SL73e as a worthy successor to the 186-mph roadster from more than two decades ago.

The report goes on to say AMG's new breed of performance cars will have an electric mode, in which case the vehicles will be purely rear-wheel drive. It is believed a similar plug-in hybrid setup will be installed in the new C63e, but with a smaller 2.0-liter four-cylinder mill instead of the V8 for a total output expected to surpass the 500-hp mark.

As a final note, it's worth mentioning "G73" and "GLS 73" were also among the trademarks registered by Mercedes three years ago, but it’s unclear whether the boxy off-roader and the fullsize luxury SUV will get the 805-hp hybrid powertrain. For now, it seems only the GT73e, S73e, and SL73e are planned. The trio will represent the most powerful AMGs ever made, outside of the hotly anticipated One hypercar.