At the smart electric car track, how many people are willing to pay for BBA luxury?
The author | Ding unique
Edit the | Li Huanhuan
"Did you write an extra zero?" On December 17, the new EQS of Mercedes-Benz's flagship pure electric sedan was officially launched, with a total of four models, including pioneer version, luxury version, first-type special edition and 4MATIC, with an official guidance price of 1.0796 million to 1.5186 million yuan. The price of more than one million yuan has aroused heated discussion among many netizens. In the comments section of the official Weibo post where the price was announced, a comment questioning the price of the new EQS was topped to the top.
The point of contention is whether the new EQS is worth such a high price?
From the perspective of the platform, this time Mercedes-Benz finally abandoned the "oil to electricity" route, and the new EQS is based on the EVA electric drive platform, and the cruising range can reach 800km.
Although the starting price is more than one million, this pricing is also very much in line with Mercedes-Benz's luxury positioning. After all, the new EQS is Mercedes-Benz's flagship pure electric sedan, corresponding to the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, and the price range of the S-Class is 917,800-1,781,700 yuan.
Despite this, netizens don't seem to buy it, "Do you have the money to buy S-grade?" Some people even joked, "Mercedes never pits the poor."
Is it worth 1.07 million?
It is undeniable that as the flagship series of the Mercedes-Benz brand, the new EQS will show "luxury" from the inside out. The length, width and height of this car are 5227/5224mm× 1926mm × 1513/1517mm (450+ and 580 models respectively), the wheelbase reaches 3210mm, and the rear seating space alone reaches nearly 1 meter, making the interior space to the extreme, becoming the world's first D-class luxury pure electric car.
In terms of appearance, the new EQS adopts a "bow-shaped" body, because there is no engine, the front cover and the wheel arch are seamless design, with the rear part of the back shape, so that the new EQS windward area is only 2.51 square meters, the windward wind resistance area is only 0.5 square meters, and the wind resistance coefficient is as low as 0.20 - this figure is the lowest in the production model at this stage.
Wind resistance results are impressive, but the front face design has received polarized feedback, some people said that the mercedes-Benz design is still online, but some people think that such a front face design is a bit cheap, "S class looks like C class".
Source: Mercedes-Benz Official
In addition to following the consistent luxury design style of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, the new EQS has also made some breakthrough designs, in line with the current popular wind direction. For example, the new EQS uses the frameless doors and hidden door handles used in electric vehicles, which highlights the sense of technology.
From the appearance point of view, the new EQS maintains the level of luxury, but as a pure electric model, electric performance such as mileage is more concerned.
Unlike the previous EQA, EQB and EQC launched by Mercedes-Benz, the new EQS was born on the new EVA electric platform. "EVA" is a pure electric exclusive platform for the development of large electric vehicles. Previously, foreign media revealed that the platform shares part of the structure with Mercedes-Benz's MRA platform, as a new electric vehicle platform, EVA can carry a battery pack of up to 377 kg.
The visible advantage of the pure electric platform is that it raises the mileage of electric vehicles to a higher level.
Among the four models currently on the market, the entry-level EQS 450+ Pioneer Edition CLTC has a cruising range of 849km, the Deluxe Edition and the First Special Edition CLTC have a cruising range of 813km, and the CLTC mileage of the EQS 580 4MATIC model is 720km. This set of cruising ranges has reached the highest level of mainstream luxury pure electric vehicles at present.
In addition, the new EQS comes standard with a power battery with a capacity of 111.8 kWh, and the entire series supports 145 kW DC fast charging. Official data shows that from 10% charge to 80%, it takes only 37 minutes. However, at present, Mercedes-Benz does not have a large-scale self-built charging network, and car owners can only rely on the DC fast charging of third-party charging stations. Taking the public DC charging pile of the current mainstream operator State Grid as an example, its maximum power can only reach 120kW, which almost makes the 145kW fast charging technology of Mercedes-Benz EQS useless.
In terms of performance, the Mercedes-Benz EQS did not insist on "performance coupe" like porsche Taycan and Tesla Model S and blindly pursued 100 km acceleration, and none of the four models entered the 4-second club. But there's nothing wrong with that, as the D-Class puts more emphasis on ride comfort.
Looking at the performance, and then looking at the interior, the new EQS also carries the heavy responsibility of Mercedes-Benz's intelligence to some extent.
Official information shows that the new EQS is equipped with an MBUX super-joint screen, which is composed of three screens and has a length of 1.41 meters. Among them, the size of the instrument screen is 12.3 inches, the same as the current S-class, the infotainment screen in the middle is 17.7 inches, and the co-driver is also equipped with a 12.3-inch screen.
The EQS is also equipped with AR-HUD (Windshield-based Augmented Reality Head-Up Display Technology), which can project 77 inches of critical driving information on the windshield.
In addition, the new EQS is equipped with 1 set of binocular cameras, 4 parking cameras, 1 lidar, 4 angle radar and 12 parking ultrasonic sensors, which are more than the existing L2 level autonomous driving solutions, with more lidar, rear oblique cameras and rain sensors.
In 2020, the United Nations issued a UNR157 decree, the first binding regulation in the world for L3 autonomous driving functions, also known as the Automatic Lane Keeping System (ALKS). Based on the decree, not long ago, the German Motor Transport Authority (KBA) officially approved Mercedes-Benz to deploy L3 level autonomous driving systems on some models. That said, Mercedes-Benz's autopilot system, Drive Pilot, became the first L3-level autopilot system approved for use by regulators, which is even ahead of Tesla.
The German Motor Transport Authority has publicly stated that it is "satisfied" with the safety of the Drive Pilot system. American car review and analysis website Edmunds also gave a positive review after the review. It is worth noting, though, that these tests were conducted under the best conditions for closed roads.
But in any case, the drive Pilot on the new EQS is the world's first L3 autonomous driving system approved by government regulators and can really hit the road.
At present, the Drive Pilot function is only available in the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and EQS series, and the first EQS models equipped with this function will be delivered in overseas regions in 2022.
Seven-figure electric car, who will buy it?
After the product parameters of the new EQS were exposed, many netizens said that it was difficult to understand, "this pricing, who gives confidence." That being said, in the midst of the spit, someone had already placed an order.
On the first day of the new EQS listing, a senior media person Zhang Qing went to the store to place an order, he told future auto daily, the reason for placing the order is simple: in the D-class pure electric market, there is no other option.
Indeed, the new EQS is currently the only option in the D-Class pure electric sedan market. Its emergence can not only test the attitude of users at this level to electric vehicles, but also verify whether luxury brands can achieve the brand premium of fuel vehicles in the era of electric vehicles.
Zhang Qing proved that he could do it with his actions.
Courtesy of respondents
Zhang Qing told Future Auto Daily that from a professional point of view, there are not many options in the field of luxury pure electric cars, and the two models that focus on "performance" model S and Porsche Taycan cannot meet everyone's aesthetic needs, and the new EQS is appropriate for the pursuit of luxury and comfort for the user group.
Under the label of "luxury", other parameters such as performance are ranked behind. For example, the fast charging problem mentioned above, Zhang Qing said that the general home charging can meet the energy demand, and the probability of using fast charging piles outside is not large. The new EQS's Drive Pilot isn't a reason to impress him , in Beijing , the use of autonomous driving features is hardly considered.
For Zhang Qing, choosing the new EQS "is to pay for the Mercedes-Benz brand and its "luxurious" positioning."
At present, the sales model of EQS is also very "willful". Although Zhang Qing has placed an order, in fact, the configuration of the purchased model is uncertain, and the price is also uncertain, "If you want to pick up the car early, it is not to see what you want to buy, but to see what they have."
Zhang Qing's choice naturally cannot represent everyone, but what Mercedes wants to seize is the heart of this part of the fans. In the era of electric vehicles, Mercedes-Benz's first killer skill is still "luxury".
In October 2020, Mercedes-Benz announced a new strategic route to achieve profitable growth in the luxury car market and is committed to continuing to lead in the field of electric drive and automotive software. The strategy consists of six pillars, the first of which is to position luxury as an integral part of all products, customer interactions and digital technologies based on the positioning of the luxury brand.
Based on the above strategy, Mercedes-Benz chose to prioritize the mass production of high-end products on the EVA platform and used the new EQS as a starting point for truly all-electric models, precisely to strengthen its "luxury" label in the electric vehicle market.
However, some insiders believe that "there is no new force to make a comparison, Mercedes-Benz (EQS this price) is not wrong", but if the product force can not keep up, the brand power is ultimately a castle in the air, after all, "Mercedes-Benz EQC has used 'fractures' to bow to the market."
Now, EQS will also be put to the test.
(In order to protect the privacy of the interviewees, the characters in the article are pseudonyms)