The Mercedes EQA Concept Was a Hatchback
Mercedes gave us every reason to believe that it’s entry-level EQ model would be a hatchback. It was shown off at the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show as a sleek (and rather attractive) two-door hatch that many believed would lead to an electric A-Class hatchback. It featured the EQ design styles that we’ve grown accustomed too, including to mock electric radiator grille and the attractive blue hue flowing from the body lines.
Mercedes said that the Concept EQA had a dual-motor powertrain that was good for “more than 268 horsepower and over 369 pound-feet of torque.” It supposedly offered a range in the area of 249 miles and could manage a 62-mph sprint in around five seconds. We never got official interior specs for the Concept EQA, but one of the biggest questions was packaging – how could Mercedes manage to create a spacious cabin while having a battery big enough to deliver more than 250 miles of range? It didn’t seem possible.
The Mercedes EQA Will be a Crossover Because Batteries Are Too Big
If you forget about the fact, just for a moment, that SUVs and crossovers are selling like bottled water the day before a hurricane strikes, then there’s only one good reason why the EQA must be a crossover:
It needs space.
The way we see it, we never got to see interior specs for the Concept EQA for a reason.
That’s not really a surprise considering rumor has it that the production EQA will rock a 60 kWh battery pack. A small, low-riding hatchback would make packaging a battery this size very difficult without compromising interior space. Using the new GLA as a base for the EQA makes sense, then, as the crossover body style will allow for extra room to store the battery under the floor while giving passengers all the space they really need.
What Else Do We Know About the Mercedes EQA?
In fact, the body will, for the most part, be about the same. The EQA could still take some styling cues from the Concept GLA – in other words, most of the EQ stuff the GLA doesn’t have – but it will be a compact crossover or an electric version of the GLA if you will.
The same specs are still expected, though. A 60 kWh battery pack should give the EQA a range of 250 to 260 miles, and the dual-motor setup should provide somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 horsepower or so. Torque will be closer to the 400 pound-foot range, but that figure doesn’t really matter much as we don’t expect much in terms of towing capacity. Plus, it’s not a vehicle you’re going to hot rod around in any way.
In terms of cargo room, you can expect about as much as that of the new Mercedes GLA since it is, essentially, the same vehicle with an electric twist. That means that you should be able to carry somewhere in the range of about 15.36 cubic-feet, however, that figure could drop a bit depending on how the battery is integrated into the EQA’s structure. We don’t expect a big departure in passenger space either, but headroom (now 38.1 inches on the 2021 GLA) could come down another half-inch or so as there has to be room made for the battery under the seats. Legroom and shoulder room should be unaffected, so expect somewhere around 38 inches of rear legroom and about 55 inches of shoulder room.
It could also compete against the Tesla Model Y, but we’ll actually have to wait for official specs to come out to determine if there’s actually a competitive edge here. It’s possible that the EQA could reside in a segment almost all its own for the first couple of years that it’s on the market.
Source: Autocar