Mercedes-Benz has started selling its EQE SUV in China. About half a year after its market launch in Europe, four versions of the new electric model are available there from 486,000 yuan (about €64,000).
The EQE SUV thus costs about half as much as the EQS SUV, which launched on the Chinese market in February. The pricing is seen in Chinese trade media, such as the “CN EV Post”, as a sign that Mercedes wants to take advantage of the opportunities in the world’s largest market for electric vehicles.
In China, the carmaker chose a different strategy for the market launch, as four variants of the EQE SUV will be available in different price segments from the start. In Europe, sales started in December 2022 with the AMG EQE 43 4MATIC for almost €125,000 – variants in the five-digit price range have only been available since the beginning of May.
The four variants for China are two drive options in two trims each. The basis is the EQE 350 4MATIC (starting at the aforementioned 486,000 yuan or €64,000) with a 215 kW all-wheel drive – the EQE SUV is currently not available there with rear-wheel drive. The vehicle differs from the EU model regarding battery and charging standards: the 96.1 kWh power storage unit provides up to 613 kilometres of range according to the Chinese CLTC cycle. It can only be charged with a maximum of 128 kW. The charging process from ten to 80 per cent thus takes 48 minutes.
The top model is the EQE 500 4MATIC with a 300 kW system output. That reduces the time for the standard sprint to 100 kph from 6.8 to 5.1 seconds. The 500 is more expensive than the 350 at 564,600 and 630,600 yuan (€74,700 and €83,100 respectively), but still cheaper than the EQE SUV in Europe: in this country, the EQE 350 4MATIC is priced at €89,547.50, while the 500 is available from €99,841.
In China, sales of the EQ models have recently failed to meet the carmaker’s expectations – as the “CN EV Post” points out, Mercedes never made it into the China Passenger Car Association’s (CPCA) ranking of New Energy Vehicle (NEV) sales. Last November, Stuttgart slashed the prices of the EQE sedan and EQS sedan to boost demand.
cnevpost.com
Keyword: Mercedes EQE SUV goes on sale in China