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 would reshape what Benz loyalists anticipate from their model of selection.
Dropping Two-Lineup Strategy, EQ Names
The louder change got here in a current presentation to buyers. “Going ahead, a coherent design language shall be used throughout your entire portfolio,” the corporate introduced.
Below a technique introduced in 2021, Mercedes break up its lineup in two. It supplied one electrical and one gas-powered automobile in most market segments, with the electrical model utilizing an “EQ” naming scheme.
Buyers might select from a gas-powered E-Class or an all-electric EQE, for example. The 2 have been comparable in dimension and have content material however seemed totally totally different.
Mercedes’ electrical automobiles (EVs) took on a curvier look, each to set them aside and to provide them higher aerodynamics, which improves EV vary. However critics derided the “jelly bean” look. We might by no means shake the impression that an EQE seemed 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 12 months. Now, executives clarified, the EQ designs will go away with the EQ names.
As an alternative, consumers will be capable of select gas- or electric-powered drivetrains with equivalent physique kinds. That may enable “a constant buyer expertise in addition to best-in-class roominess and excellent proportions whereas maintaining a good grip on prices and manufacturing flexibility.” It’s going to additionally let EV consumers purchase the E-Class they all the time wished.
Electrical fashions will as an alternative have the phrase “with EQ Know-how” appended to the top of their names. An E-Class shall be a gas-powered automotive, and an E-Class with EQ Know-how shall be an EV.
“Screens Are Not Luxurious”
The second change was not included in any press launch. Nonetheless, it represents a philosophical shift amongst Mercedes designers and will reshape the way in which 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 during which he confirmed a change of coronary heart about inside design.
“Screens are usually not luxurious,” Wagener mentioned. “We have now to create luxurious past the display screen. That’s why I discuss craftsmanship and class.”
That is stunning should you’re a longtime Mercedes loyalist. In recent times, Mercedes has leaned into the concept screens are luxurious greater than maybe every 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 really one huge display screen. They’re three separate screens: one for the motive force, one for the passenger, and one within the heart. The house between them is solely glass, not attentive to the contact. However even that cup is significant. Different manufacturers provide you with three screens. Mercedes does that however desires you to suppose you’ve got 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 significantly luxurious is a real philosophical change.
Don’t anticipate large screens to vanish totally from Mercedes merchandise. Wagener advised ABC Information, “From the {hardware} facet, it’s superb. From the software program facet, 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.”
Nonetheless, Mercedes was as soon as a model recognized for its give attention to old-world luxurious and craftsmanship. It might return to its roots because it realizes that a number of screens, now out there on even mainstream automobiles, are usually not the way in which to convey a luxurious really feel.
The following technology of Mercedes designs will probably attempt to one-up rivals on high quality, not amount of glass.