Mercedes-Benz is rethinking its method to new applied sciences. The corporate has broadly introduced one main technique change and quietly hinted at one other that might reshape what Benz loyalists anticipate from their model of alternative.
Dropping Two-Lineup Strategy, EQ Names
The louder change got here in a current presentation to traders. “Going ahead, a coherent design language will likely be used throughout your entire portfolio,” the corporate introduced.
Underneath a method introduced in 2021, Mercedes cut up its lineup in two. It provided one electrical and one gas-powered automobile in most market segments, with the electrical model utilizing an “EQ” naming scheme.
Customers may select from a gas-powered E-Class or an all-electric EQE, as an example. The 2 have been comparable in dimension and have content material however regarded fully totally different.
Mercedes’ electrical automobiles (EVs) took on a curvier look, each to set them aside and to offer them higher aerodynamics, which improves EV vary. However critics derided the “jelly bean” look. We may by no means shake the impression that an EQE regarded like an overinflated E-Class you can pop with a pin. The brand new naming scheme robbed EVs of a number of the status related to the model’s historic nameplates.
Now, Mercedes says, the excellence will go away.
Mercedes introduced plans to drop the EQ naming scheme final yr. Now, executives clarified, the EQ designs will go away with the EQ names.
As a substitute, patrons will be capable of select gas- or electric-powered drivetrains with similar physique types. That may enable “a constant buyer expertise in addition to best-in-class roominess and ideal proportions whereas maintaining a decent grip on prices and manufacturing flexibility.” It’ll additionally let EV patrons purchase the E-Class they at all times needed.
Electrical fashions will as a substitute have the phrase “with EQ Know-how” appended to the tip of their names. An E-Class will likely be a gas-powered automotive, and an E-Class with EQ Know-how will likely be an EV.
“Screens Are Not Luxurious”
The second change was not included in any press launch. Nevertheless, it represents a philosophical shift amongst Mercedes designers and will reshape the best way a Mercedes feels in the long term.
Each automaker has one lead designer — a visionary who controls how its designers work and the ethos of the merchandise they create. For Mercedes, it’s Chief Design Officer Gorden Wagener.
Wagener gave an interview to ABC Information this week through which he confirmed a change of coronary heart about inside design.
“Screens should not luxurious,” Wagener stated. “Now we have to create luxurious past the display screen. That’s why I discuss craftsmanship and class.”
That is surprising in case you’re a longtime Mercedes loyalist. In recent times, Mercedes has leaned into the concept that screens are luxurious greater than maybe some other automaker. In 2025, its signature function is the “Hyperscreen,” a display screen that takes the place of your entire dashboard in its highest-end automobiles.
The Hyperscreen and the associated, barely scaled-down Superscreen aren’t truly one monumental display screen. They’re three separate screens: one for the driving force, one for the passenger, and one within the middle. The area between them is just glass, not attentive to the contact. However even that tumbler is significant. Different manufacturers provide you with three screens. Mercedes does that however desires you to assume you’ve gotten one cabin-spanning display screen as if the epitome of luxurious is a automotive that’s all display screen.
For the corporate that constructed it, concluding that it isn’t notably luxurious is a real philosophical change.
Don’t anticipate large screens to vanish fully from Mercedes merchandise. Wagener instructed ABC Information, “From the {hardware} aspect, it’s excellent. From the software program aspect, it hasn’t been that good.” To enhance the expertise, he says, “We’re engaged on content material that’s extra particular and extra entertaining.”
Nevertheless, Mercedes was as soon as a model identified for its concentrate on old-world luxurious and craftsmanship. It could return to its roots because it realizes that a number of screens, now obtainable on even mainstream automobiles, should not the best way to convey a luxurious really feel.
The subsequent era of Mercedes designs will probably attempt to one-up rivals on high quality, not amount of glass.