The customers who will be first in line to purchase the all-electric Mercedes-Benz EQC were special guests on Tuesday night when the history-making SUV broke cover for the first time in Australia. At a function held at Melbourne’s Mercedes me store, customers and invited guests saw the Mercedes-Benz EQC revealed for the first time, well ahead of the on-sale date, which is expected later in 2019.

The customers and guests also heard from the Mercedes-Benz team that has been working not only towards the arrival of the company’s first electric vehicle in Australia, a family-sized SUV, but also setting in place the infrastructure and support for the wider EQ program, through which Mercedes-Benz aims to bring electrification to every model range by 2022.

A special guest directly from the Mercedes-Benz factory in Stuttgart was Karl Scheible, the head of testing for the EQC program. “We have driven a lot of test kilometres in the past few years, we have done a lot of 60-80 hour working weeks, and everything has been double checked, and it has been a very exciting time,” he said.

Karl has spent more time driving the EQC than almost anyone else – from testing in temperatures of -35°C in Sweden two weeks ago, to heat testing in California’s Death Valley, and test for speed, reliability and comfort in South Africa, Spain and Germany – and is perfectly placed to understand how the EQC differs from a conventional SUV.

“The main differences are that we have no transmission in an electric car, and maximum torque at zero kilometres per hour, so it was a big challenge to find the perfect combination between driveability and acceleration, and a compromise between sportiness and comfort, and driveability,” he said.

Some of the EQC customers present at the launch were able to join Karl the following day at a private test facility to become the first Australians to ride in the ground-breaking SUV, which is expected to set the course for Mercedes-Benz model development for decades to come. The Managing Director and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Australia/Pacific, Horst von Sanden, told the exclusive gathering that delivering the first electric Mercedes-Benz production vehicle was an extremely proud moment for the company.

“We always like to be first, but in this situation with electric cars we were not first, but for a very good reason,” he said. “We wanted to bring to the market the most complete solution for future mobility. I think it’s fair to say that electric now has a Mercedes!”

Mr von Sanden said he was confident that the customers present at the launch event would be impressed with their purchase. “I was fortunate enough to drive around in an EQC today and I was absolutely blown away,” he said. “I currently drive a high-performance Mercedes-AMG car and I enjoy it, but having been in the EQC, the torque, the acceleration and the smoothness of the ride was just mind-blowing. Mercedes-Benz has committed to launching an electric car in every model until 2022, so you can imagine this is just the beginning of a massive onslaught of electric vehicles by Mercedes-Benz.”

The Mercedes-Benz EQC will be displayed to invited customers at the Mercedes- Benz Star Lounge across the Formula 1® Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2019 weekend.

Credit: Mercedes-Benz