Mercedes-Benz is pushing back the US release of its first mass-market electric vehicle, an SUV known as the EQC, to 2021. The $68,000 EV was originally supposed to start shipping in the US at the start of 2020.
Announced in 2018, the EQC launched in Europe earlier this year. Mercedes-Benz says parent company Daimler made a “strategic decision to first support the growing customer demand for the EQC” on the continent. Mercedes-Benz also says that there is “high interest worldwide.” Beyond that, neither company offered any more information as to why it’s pushing back the US launch or why one of the biggest global automotive conglomerates needs to sacrifice one market in favor of another.
The US is the second biggest car market in the world behind China, but it’s only on par with (and sometimes behind) Europe when it comes to sales of all-electric vehicles. One factor driving the availability of cleaner cars in Europe is the strict emissions regulations package put in place by the European Union, which requires automakers to reduce the emissions of their new vehicle fleets by 37.5 percent by 2030. The European Union’s emissions regulations are better set up to force a switch to electric cars
In contrast, President Trump has spent the bulk of his presidency unsuccessfully trying to roll back Obama-era emissions regulations that are similarly meant to support the adoption of cleaner cars.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/16/21024073/mercedes-benz-eqc-electric-delay-us-launch-2021
Recent Comments