Heels & Horsepower Magazine

Mercedes-Benz South Africa announces introduction of five full Battery Electric Vehicles

By H&H Admin

Through the introduction and inauguration of Mercedes-EQ to the South African market – the all-electric world of Mercedes-Benz and the brand which represents all electric powered vehicles, Mercedes-Benz has provided further proof that the age of electric mobility has arrived.

Five new models from the global Mercedes-EQ range will be launched during the course of 2022 in South Africa as part of a clear strategic push to position the brand as a global and local leader in the electric vehicle market.

The range for 2022 includes the EQA SUV, the family-sized SUV EQB, The mid-sized EQC, based on the GLC platform, the electric business sedan EQE and the luxury sedan EQS. These fully electric vehicles from the Mercedes-EQ family are part of a transformation that’s gaining momentum rapidly.

Mercedes- EQS world premiere with Alicia Keys

Leading in electric drive and digitization is a key pillar of the Mercedes-Benz strategy that was announced by Mark Raine, newly appointed President of Mercedes-Benz Cars and Co-CEO of Mercedes-Benz South Africa.

The new strategy aims to leverage the brand’s strengths in the luxury space, while unlocking the full potential of its unique speciality brands, namely AMG, Maybach, and EQ.

From L-R : Selvin Govender, Vice-President of Sales and Marketing, Mark Raine, President of Mercedes-Benz Cars and Co-CEO of Mercedes-Benz South Africa
Market and network readiness

Raine is confident that South Africa will see a strong uptake and growth in the luxury electric vehicle market in the next 12-24 months. “Technology is the key to engineering a sustainable future. As the leading premium luxury automotive brand, we are once again leading the way into the future of the automobile and mobility as a whole”.

Raine announced that Mercedes-Benz Cars will collaborate with Grid Cars for public charging, and that every EQ customer will additionally receive a complimentary Mercedes-EQ wall charger, installed at a location of their choice.

Raine added that 36 of its Agent partners across South Africa have been appointed as Retail and Service partners for Mercedes-EQ, which will add to the public charging grid and also provide highly trained professionals both at sales and aftersales levels to help overcome any reservations around issues like range anxiety.

The new Mercedes-EQ range

Selvin Govender, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, stated that the “Mercedes-EQ range will provide benchmark performance for South African’s in the EV space. The EQ-design language of “sensual purity” combined with “progressive luxury” is highlighted by the specific exterior and interior design elements, and are completed by an EV-service ecosystem”.

EQA: all-electric dynamic sports SUV 

The EQA is a dynamic, all-electric sport SUV. A close relation of the GLA, it delivers all the characteristics of that vehicle, combined with an efficient electric powertrain.

The EQA 250 derivative will be available for the South African market, with a power output of 140KW, a range of up to 412km (WLTP) and a combined electrical consumption of 17.7kWh/100km.

The EQB: all-electric family size SUV 

The new EQB is an iconic electric SUV which incorporates the square forms of Mercedes-Benz off-roaders and projects them into the future. Whether it’s for a large nuclear family (7-Seat option available) or a small extended family, the new EQB offers space for many family configurations and a wide variety of transport needs. This gives it an exceptional position among compact electric cars.

This all-electric compact SUV will be available in the form of the EQB 350 4MATIC derivative. This all-wheel drive model offers a power output of 215KW, a range of up to 419km and a combined electrical consumption of 17.4kWh/100km.

EQC: all-electric mid-sized SUV

The EQC was the first car to be produced by Mercedes-Benz in the line of the new generation of the Mercedes-Benz EQ family with a battery electric drivetrain. It marked the start of the transfer of Mercedes-Benz towards future electric mobility.

This all-wheel drive model offers a power output of 300KW, a range of up to 437 km*(WLTP) and a combined electrical consumption of 21.3kWh/100km *(WLTP).

The EQE: all-electric business sedan

The new EQE offers all the essential functions of the range topping EQS in a slightly more compact format. The EQE’s interior dimensions even exceed those of today’s E-Class, carrying the concept of the business sedan into the future.

The EQS: all-electric luxury sedan

The first all-electric premium sedan from Mercedes-EQ, the EQS redefines the luxury vehicle segment. The innovative and holistic design is based on a new vehicle architecture which fuses technology, design, functionality and connectivity, delighting both drivers and passengers.

With ranges up to 780 kilometres and an output of up to 385 kW. The first models to come onto the market are the 245kW EQS 450+, with combined electrical consumption of 18.9-16.2 kWh/100 km.

We will share pricing and other details once it is made available to us

Kia goes electric at first IAA Mobility

The global premiere of Kia’s all-new plug-in hybrid Sportage is the first European-specific Sportage version in the model’s 28-year history.

Kia will go electric at the first IAA Mobility show, held between 7 and 12 September in Munich. The Korean carmaker will give a global premiere to the Sportage plug-in hybrid (PHEV), based on the first European-specific version of the Sportage in the model’s 28-year history.

Kia will also showcase the talents of the company’s first dedicated battery electric vehicle (BEV), the EV6. 

The Sportage PHEV will attract people looking to make the move to electric while enjoying the practicality and presence of the new urban SUV.

The PHEV model features Kia’s 1.6-litre T-GDI engine, a 66.9 kW permanent magnet traction electric motor and a 13.8 kWh lithiumion polymer battery pack. 

Kia will also give a European public debut to the EV6, the embodiment of the new Kia brand.

The high-tech BEV has been developed to remove the perceived barriers that prevent many from making the switch to electric by providing rapid charging times, access to an extensive charging network, impressively long range, and segment-leading interior space.

The EV6 will deliver the very best experience a BEV can offer, making ownership as convenient and accessible as running a petrol or diesel vehicle, and with reduced environmental impact. 

Visitors will be treated to an EV6 VR experience and the opportunity to sit in both the all-new Sportage PHEV and the new EV6. 

Carbon is Our Enemy: Let’s Use Everything We’ve Got to Fight It!

By Dr. Gill Pratt: Chief Executive Officer of Toyota Research Institute (TRI) and an Executive Fellow of Toyota Motor Corporation, shares his thoughts on the necessity of hybrids and plug-in to maximise our limited battery supply and reduce carbon.

I love electrified vehicles. I love them not only because I’ve worked on their development for decades, but because I’ve been deeply concerned about greenhouse gases and climate change since I first learned about them from my father, who worked for the Air Pollution Control division of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

Today, I live with my family in California, and like my neighbors last year, we watched the sky turn orange with smoke due to extensive wildfires. On the opposite side of the spectrum, we now see unprecedented floods in Europe. Regardless of how much of today’s extreme weather events are directly attributable to climate change, I feel passionately that to prevent even worse catastrophes, we must achieve carbon neutrality, and soon.

Today, besides owning a Toyota Sienna Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) and RAV4 Prime Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV), I also own a Tesla model X Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV). I love them all.

In line with my concerns, starting in the late 1980s as a graduate student, research scientist, and faculty member at MIT, I designed power electronics that helped MIT’s solar-electric vehicle team win races around the world. Later I helped our team captain, James Worden, create Solectria Corporation, which made electric vehicle components, early electric vehicles and photovoltaic inverters.

Today, besides owning a Toyota Sienna Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) and RAV4 Prime Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV), I also own a Tesla model X Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV). I love them all.

You would think that with all my experience, I would be an enthusiastic proponent of ditching the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) and switching as soon as possible to pure Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs). I am not.

Following Science

As a scientist, I know that as with many other natural and man-made systems, a diversity of EV drivetrain types is a better way to prevent climate change than a monoculture of only BEVs. Why is this? For two reasons: First, producing a battery cell costs money, uses natural resources, and produces significant greenhouse gases.

I love my Tesla Model X BEV. But commuting 30 miles in it every day — the average US commute — and recharging it every night is wasteful of the carbon reducing potential of most of its over 300-mile (482km) range battery.

Sometimes we take the Tesla on long trips. But most of the time, 90% of its battery cells aren’t doing any good, and would reduce carbon much more if they were harder at work in other types of electrified vehicles, including HEVs or PHEVs.

For example, we hardly ever put gas into our RAV4 Prime PHEV, which has a battery ⅙ as large as our Model X BEV

– Dr. Gill Pratt: Chief Executive Officer of Toyota Research Institute (TRI) and an Executive Fellow of Toyota Motor Corporation

Maximizing the benefit of every battery cell produced requires that we distribute them smartly.

This means putting them into a greater number of “right sized” electrified vehicles, including HEVs and PHEVs, instead of placing them all into a fewer number of long-range BEVs, like my model X. This is particularly important because presently it is difficult to recycle the kinds of batteries used in BEVs. If we are to achieve carbon neutrality, we must pay attention to all parts of the “3R” process — Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

For example, we hardly ever put gas into our RAV4 Prime PHEV, which has a battery ⅙ as large as our Model X BEV. For the same investment in batteries as our single Model X, five other RAV4 Prime customers could reduce their carbon footprint too.

Don’t I think we should try to increase battery production, lower the carbon footprint of electric power plants, and expand rapid charging stations as quickly as possible? Of course I do.

– DR. GILL PRATT: CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF TOYOTA RESEARCH INSTITUTE (TRI) AND AN EXECUTIVE FELLOW OF TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION

Second, what is best for the average person is not best for every person. Different people have different needs and different circumstances. In some parts of the world, people have access to highly renewable electric power and BEV rapid charging stations. In many other parts of the world, rapid chargers are rare, or electricity is generated with high carbon emissions resulting in BEVs putting more net carbon into the air over their lifetime than PHEVs and in some cases even HEVs.

So, even if the best choice for the average person someday becomes a BEV, it will not be the best way for every person to contribute to reducing carbon emissions, or for the most carbon emissions to be eliminated.

Don’t I think we should try to increase battery production, lower the carbon footprint of electric power plants, and expand rapid charging stations as quickly as possible? Of course I do.

Image: Toyota BZ4X Concept

But I also know that in many countries (including the US) much of the easier carbon reduction of electric power plants has already been achieved through conversion of coal and oil burners to natural gas (lowering carbon output by roughly half). Further improvement, such as conversion to green or blue hydrogen, or replacement of thermal power plants by new nuclear, photovoltaic, wind and geothermal plants will be harder, cost more, and take longer, at time scales comparable to and beyond the lifetime of new vehicles.

I believe, as does Toyota, that it would be a tremendous mistake for governments around the world to prescribe narrow solutions like insisting that all vehicles be BEVs.

– DR. GILL PRATT: CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF TOYOTA RESEARCH INSTITUTE (TRI) AND AN EXECUTIVE FELLOW OF TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION

Ending Carbon Emissions ASAP. So where does this leave us?

The atmosphere accumulates carbon over long periods of time, so the carbon we emit now will be with us for a century or more. Our responsibility is clear: We must eliminate carbon emissions as soon as possible. As a scientist, I know that, to paraphrase Einstein, the solution of how to eliminate carbon as soon as possible should be as simple as possible, but no simpler.

As a result, I believe, as does Toyota, that it would be a tremendous mistake for governments around the world to prescribe narrow solutions like insisting that all vehicles be BEVs. Instead, the better solution is to allow manufacturers to innovate across a diversity of drivetrains and drivers to choose the low-carbon drivetrain that suits their circumstances best.

Carbon is the enemy, not ICEs. In many parts of the world for some time to come, PHEVs and even HEVs will generate comparable or less lifetime carbon than BEVs. We have open-sourced a modeling and simulation tool that shows this. Now to be clear — I still love BEVs, and Toyota expects BEVs and FCEVs will make up 15% of its U.S. sales by 2030.

We are also heavily investing in R&D on new types of batteries, including solid-state batteries and AI tools for discovering and optimising battery performance. But neither Toyota nor I think this is all we should make. By keeping HEVs, PHEVs, BEVs, and FCEVs in the lineup, 70% of Toyota’s vehicles will be electrified by 2030.

This approach — of diverse solutions for diverse circumstances — is exactly what the phrase “think globally, act locally” means to me. And I sincerely believe it is the best way to reduce the most carbon emitted into the atmosphere as soon as possible.