Mercedes-Benz reportedly delays EQC electric SUV volume deliveries to November

Mercedes-Benz is reportedly delaying volume deliveries of the EQC, its first all-electric vehicle built on the ground to be electric, until November.

Daimler has always been guiding deliveries of the EQC in 2019, but deliveries have been expectedly sooner since the automaker unveiled the production vehicles in late 2018.

Now, it sounds like only a model year 2020 will be delivered this year.

German magazine Handelsblatt reports that Mercedes-Benz plans to deliver the EQC electric SUV to some “VIP customers” as soon as June, but that actually meaningful delivery volumes may not start before November.

We contacted Mercedes-Benz about the report and we will update if we get an answer.

Mercedes-Benz has announced a range of a 450km (280 miles), but the company was still using the NEDC standard when it made the announcement.

It wouldn’t be surprising if the real-world range is much closer to around 200 miles on a single charge.

The battery pack will be powered by 2 asynchronous motors with a total capacity of 300 kW (408 hp). It can achieve a top speed of 180 km/h (111 mph) and an acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 5.1 seconds.

According to the spec sheet, the EQC is equipped with a water-cooled onboard charger with a capacity of 7.4 kW and has a maximum capacity of up to 110 kW at an appropriate charging station.“

The German automaker has yet to confirm the price, but it is expected to start at around $70,000.

Electrek’s Take

I’ve always been suspicious of the timing of the EQC because they unveiled the vehicle just before the Audi e-tron even though the vehicle was supposed to hit production a year behind its four-ring competitor.

In my opinion, Mercedes-Benz rushed to unveil the EQC before the e-tron just to steal some mindshare from Audi in the electric SUV market even though they knew they couldn’t deliver the vehicle before them.

Now to be fair, Audi also ran into its own delays with the e-tron and now it looks like it won’t have that much of a lead on deliveries over the EQC.

Also, it’s interesting that Mercedes-Benz recently said that the EQC SUV is already sold out for the year. It’s not really impressive if the Handelsblatt report is true and they will only have volume deliveries for a month or two in 2019.

Nonetheless, I still can’t wait to try it and see how it stacks up against the growing number of electric SUVs hitting the market.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.