Although Mercedes-Benz was rumored to arrive at this year’s Paris auto show with a production-ready electric car to deliver 310 miles of driving range , it turns out the company is not quite ready for that. Instead, Mercedes showed yet another electric-powered concept car called the Generation EQ. This crossover EV is supposedly a “close-to-production” demonstration of Benz’s comprehensive plan to release multiple long-range electric vehicles under its new “EQ” sub-brand . We just can’t help but wish it were a real car with a real on-sale date. All we know now is that a production EV like this will arrive “within the next three years” and with a price comparable to that of a reasonably equipped GLC crossover. Until then, we can appreciate the Generation EQ’s clean exterior design, which looks like a GLC that’s been specially prepared for the next Iron Man movie. Futuristic without being outlandish, it’s been pared of extraneous body parts such as side mirrors and door handles in the interest of reducing air resistance. We’re not exactly sure how the Generation EQ stacks up in the Benz lineup, size-wise, but that’s not the most important metric anyway, as the EQ range could include several different body styles and classes of vehicles—eventually.
The really important stuff is underneath, where a dedicated, modular electric-vehicle platform will be able to accommodate this wide variety of vehicle shapes, sizes, and battery capacities. The Generation EQ concept is said to use the most powerful of the possible EV setups, with two electric motors making a total of 402 horsepower and 516 lb-ft of torque and routing that grunt through all four wheels. That supposedly makes for a zero-to-62-mph time of less than five seconds. Not exactly as quick as Tesla’s Ludicrous Mode, but not slow, either.