Daimler AG and its main vehicular marque Mercedes-Benz are gearing up for the launch of its “EQ” electrified sub-brand later this year, which will arrive with the debut of the EQC electric crossover. Daimler promises ten vehicles will wear the EQ badge by 2022, spanning the range of vehicles already offered by its brands, from city cars to flagship sedans and SUVs.
“We are planning to build ten fully electric vehicles under the EQ brand by 2022,” stated Wolfgang Würth, head of EQ product communication at Daimler. “This will be from Smart to compact Mercedes models all the way up to luxury sedans and SUVs. Our goal is a share of sales between 15 and 25 percent in 2025.”
As part of its preparation for this assault on the electric vehicle market, within which the most prominent name remains Tesla, Daimler has invested effort into marketing EQ with concept cars and attaching its name to Formula E, along with the company’s highly successful Formula 1 outfit, whose engine wore the “EQ Power+” brand starting in 2017. Additionally, Daimler has made dozens of bids for the rights to EQ model names between late February and mid-April with a multitude of international intellectual property offices belonging to countries like Germany, China, and the United States.
The filings themselves are attached to goods described as pertaining to “motor vehicles and parts thereof […] electric vehicles.” Daimler already acknowledges the EQC’s existence, and it appears amidst names for four additional vehicles not yet announced by Daimler: EQA, EQB, EQE, and EQS. If EQ brand name schemes are in keeping with those established by Mercedes-Benz, multiple powertrain tiers are suggested by the varying strings of numbers attached to the five vehicles’ names, as charted below.
On top of the plethora of model name filings, a trademark for something called an “AMG Performance Unit” as pertaining to “motor/electric vehicles and parts thereof” was also filed by Daimler.
Würth declined to elaborate on the EQ model range or potential links to AMG performance variants, citing Daimler company policy not to comment on future or potential products.
“Securing potential technology and model naming rights is a very common process at Mercedes-Benz and Mercedes-AMG,” responded Würth, with regards to The Drive‘s pressure for additional information on the above trademark filings. “We will introduce the EQC in 2018 to the public.”