Mercedes to drop EQ badge for its electric cars?

According to internal sources quoted by the German Handelsblatt, Mercedes-Benz intends to drop its EQ-label it uses to differentiate its electric models from regular ICE cars. As the premium brand plans to go full electric by the end of the decade, it might start doctoring with the labels from 2024 and return to its old S-, E- C- and G-Classes.

Mercedes started to use the EQ badge in 2019, which stands for ‘electric intelligence’, as a wink to ‘Intelligence Quotient (IQ). It was introduced with its first BEV in an SUV version of the C-class, the EQC. So obviously, the EQ prefix was used for newer models like the EQS and EQE, too, differentiating from the regular S-class and E-Class.

Losing marketing advantage

But already now, the brand is forcing itself into the kerb when it launched a sport utility version of the EQS, which is likely named and needs the ‘SUV’ suffix to differentiate. And what when the electric version of the C-Class sedan is coming up? The EQC already exists as an SUV? And are we going to see an EQSLC or EQGLA, for instance?

Confusing and a pity to lose the marketing advantage of the worldwide well-known ‘old’ badges with separate classes. So, according to Handelsblatt, internally, the decision is taken to no longer try to tack another bit on to the end but stick to the old nomenclature, as all models will be electric in the end. The ‘EQ’ badge would then be recuperated for services and electric accessories like wall boxes.

Combining C- and A-Class

The final decision on exactly when the EQ badge will be ditched isn’t taken yet. A possibility is to introduce the old-new naming with the launch of the new MMA platform in the second half of 2024.

The new generation E-Class planned for 2023 will be the last new model from Mercedes-Benz on an internal combustion engine (ICE) platform. All subsequent new model series in the future will be based on architectures that the Stuttgart-based company is developing specifically for electric vehicles.

Mercedes’ new Modular Architecture platform (MMA) could become the base of a new, smaller member of the EQ electric family, uniting the C- and the A-Class into one model. As the current EQC, Mercedes’s first electric volume model, is bound for extinction; theoretically, the new electric car could be called EQC again. But what with a new SUV in that class? See the problem?

ID.Golf?

Other brands struggle with the same naming problems as their model portfolio evolves to electric. Volkswagen, for instance, introduced the ID.3 as the first sibling of the new generation EVs, following so far consequently with an ID.4 – 5  -6 and .7 and even an ID.Buzz, an ID.Crozz or ID.AERO concept.

But what about popular names like VW’s Golf or Beetle? Volkswagen’s brand boss Thomas Schäfer told German media that the iconic badges might be applied to a new EV version of the current e-Golf, to arrive somewhere in 2026 and to be sold alongside the successor of the ID.3. Something like ‘ID.Golf’, for instance, after the combustion-engined version ceases production?

“Both names have a reason to stay,” he told AutoExpress. “ID. is already a really well-known logo for electrification. We created it, and the connection of Volkswagen and ID. works; there’s no need to cancel it or redo it.”