Mercedes-Benz wants to shock and awe with its first battery-electric model in the U.S. — and attract new customers to the brand.
The EQS sedan is an emissions-free reincarnation of Mercedes’ vaunted flagship S-Class, and it’s at the vanguard of a fleet of EVs that the automaker will launch in the U.S. under the EQ subbrand.
“The biggest surprise with the EQS is maybe there is no surprise,” Daimler CEO Ola Källenius said on a media call this week. “It rides and feels like a Mercedes through and through.”
A lot is riding on the new model, which arrives stateside in the fall. Mercedes faces intense competition in the $100,000-plus EV market from incumbents such as Tesla and Porsche, as well as upstarts such as Lucid Motors, that have upended the landscape.
