As part of Mercedes Benz’s expanding range of locally produced cars in India, the German carmaker announced that the upcoming EQS luxury EV sedan will be locally assembled at its plant in Chakan, Maharashtra. The EQS will be one of the 10 new Mercedes models to be launched in India in 2022.
The EQS is the brand’s first all-electric luxury limousine and is touted as the ‘S class of EVs’. It is the brand’s first ‘born electric’ EV built on a dedicated electric platform known as EVA, and is not derived from an existing ICE model, as are the EQC, EQA and EQB.
It is unclear which version of the EQS will be launched in India — the 334hp EQS 450+ or the 523hp EQS 580. Both use a 107.8kWh battery with a claimed range of up to 770km, as rated by WLTP. There is also a high-performance AMG EQS 53 model, which could also potentially come to India at a later stage.
While Mercedes claims that the EQS will be locally assembled, those units are likely to go on sale in the last quarter of the year. The carmaker will initially import the EQS in a limited run of ‘Launch Edition’ models for the first lot of customers.
The reason for this time-frame is that the Chakan plant will not only require upgrades to accommodate the electric powertrain of the EQS, a vehicle which does not share a platform with any existing locally built model, but the staff will also need to be trained to build this new model with its unique powertrain.
With local assembly of its flagship EV, Mercedes could take the upper hand in the luxury EV space where its rivals such as Audi, Jaguar and BMW fully import their respective flagship EVs. With the commencement of local assembly with the EQS, it opens up the door for future EVs built on the same EVA platform, to be locally assembled with ease.
