Mercedes Benz has created a new division known as EQ to produce all electric cars. It plans to offer as many as 10 electric car models ranging from ultra compact ‘smart’ cars to large SUVs and sedans by 2022.
Come 2025, it expects electrics will account for up to 25% of sales. Beginning in 2020, every ‘smart’ car will be electric. The first compact EQ cars will be manufactured at the Hambach factory in northeastern France.
Mercedes Benz will invest € 500 million for the construction of new facilities at the Hambach factory to expand the assembly line with a new body shop featuring state of the art manufacturing technology.
The Hambach factory was the first to produce an electric car for Mercedes Benz — an electric version of the smart for two in 1997. Now it will leverage those two decades of experience to build the first EQ compact electric vehicles. The factory is powered by 100% renewable energy.
The first EQ model, the EQC electric SUV, will begin production next year at a factory in Bremen.