Benchmarking is a common practice in the automotive world, and for good reason – in this highly competitive industry, staying one step ahead of one’s rivals can mean the difference between running a profitable business and falling far behind the pack, oftentimes in just a few model years. As such, Ford and Mercedes-Benz are quite familiar with each other, with the former having recently benchmarked the long-running and quite iconic G-Wagon. Now, Ford Authority has spotted yet another model from the German automaker in The Blue Oval’s stable – the Mercedes EQS SUV, which in this case is wearing the tell-tale yellow sticker on its windshield indicating that it’s a Ford-owned vehicle.
A relatively new product in its own right, the Mercedes EQS SUV is the brand’s flagship all-electric utility vehicle that is essentially an EV version of the GLS, albeit a bit shorter. Equipped with a 108.4 kWh battery pack, the EQS is available in three variants – the standard EQS450+, which features a single electric motor churning out 355 horsepower and 419 pound-feet of torque, the dual-motor all-wheel-drive 450 4Matic that produces 355 horsepower and 590 pound-feet, and the EQS580 4Matic, which offers up 536 horsepower and 633 pound-feet.
Range for this luxurious SUV comes in at 305 miles for the 450+ and 285 miles for 4Matic models. As far as pricing goes, the Mercedes EQS starts out at $105,450 for the base model, and goes up to $127,000, sans options. As far as why Ford would be benchmarking this particular model, well, it’s fairly obvious – the automaker plans to launch multiple Lincoln EVs in the coming years, though its timetable has changed somewhat in recent months.
What we do know is that the first of those forthcoming models will likely be an all-electric version of the Lincoln Aviator, which is expected to debut in 2025 when production begins at the Oakville Assembly plant in Canada. The next generation version of the Aviator – if it retains that name – may be sold as an EV only, in fact, while the Lincoln Star concept – an EV itself – has already entered testing as well.
We’ll have more on everything Ford’s competition is up to soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for around-the-clock Ford news coverage.
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