Mercedes EQC ELECTRIC SUV production will start spring 2019

Mercedes EQC SUV production will start spring 2019

The Mercedes EQC – Mercedes’ answer to the Jaguar I-Pace and Audi e-tron – will go in to production from spring 2019.

The Mercedes EQC electric SUV was finally revealed in production guise as Mercedes’ challenge to the Tesla Model X, Jaguar I-Pace and Audi e-tron, finally moving from a massive ongoing tease to a production-ready reveal.

But despite a reveal, it looked like Mercedes weren’t actually ready to build the EQC, and it seemed likely it would be 2020 before EQCs actually started to arrive with customers. But that looks to have been brought forward, with Mercedes now saying they will start building the EQC in spring 2019.

That’s because Mercedes’ subsidiary, Deutsche Accumotive, is doubling their workforce by the end of 2018 to gear up for the launch of a second battery pack production facility in Kamenz, Germany, to deliver battery packs for the EQC.

Dieter Zetsche, Mercedes-Benz boss, said:

We are taking big steps in the direction of electro mobility. At Accumotive we will double the amount of employees until the end of the year 2018. We will achieve this almost one year earlier than initially planned. We are thus heading for the start of production of the EQC in spring 2019.

As a reminder, the EQC comes with 402bhp from a pair of electric motors, is good for 0-62mph in around 5.0 seconds, has an 80kWh battery pack, will be good for a more than 200 mile real world range and will charge to 80 per cent in 40 minutes on a rapid charger.

So if you’ve been waiting for a proper electric SUV from Mercedes before you jump in to an EV, the wait looks to have got shorter.