BERLIN: Mercedes has announced plans to expand its luxury electric EQS saloon into a tougher, taller and pricier SUV under the same name in December.
Prices for the EQS-badged SUV are to start at €110,658 (RM503,000) in its home market of Germany, making it €3,000 more than the already expensive basic model.
That price gets you an SUV that is almost 15 cm shorter than the saloon (at a total length of 5.13 metres) with an identical wheelbase (3.21 metres), but a 20cm higher roof offering more headroom.
The luggage compartment can hold up to 2,100 litres and a third row of seats is also available on request.
Mercedes says there's a separate off-road driving programme, where an optional air suspension raises the car by an additional 2.5 cm, the accelerator pedal reacts more sensitively and a camera looks under the nose of the car.
In the basic version, the EQS has to make do without all-wheel drive to prevent dragging down the car's range. The EQS 450+ is powered by a 360 hp rear motor, but the almost 108 kWh battery provides a maximum of 671km standard range.
In the equally powerful EQS 450 4Matic, there are two motors powering all four wheels. Third in the line-up is the EQS 580, whose two motors produce 544hp. According to the manufacturer, the two all-wheel-drive vehicles can travel a maximum of around 610km.
At best, the SUV sprints from 0 to 100kph in 4.6 seconds with a maximum of 858Nm and reaches a top speed of 210kph in all variants. A Maybach version based on the EQS SUV is to follow next year.
