The new Mercedes-Benz EQS battery-electric sedan has been teased ahead of its arrival next year.
The new Mercedes-Benz EQS is essentially the battery-powered version of the new S-Class full-size sedan and as such, will serve as a direct rival to the Cadillac Celestiq. That said, Mercedes has a huge jump on Cadillac with its large electric luxury sedan. Whereas the Celestiq isn’t expected to go on sale for a few more years at least, the EQS is already undergoing testing at Mercedes’ test center in Germany and will be in customer’s driveways by next year. Mercedes expects all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles to account for more than half of its sales by 2030.
The Mercedes-Benz EQS rides on the automaker’s new dedicated all-electric architecture and will be able to travel an estimated 700 km (432 miles) on the generous WLTP test cycle. The automaker has not released any details on the vehicle’s electric motors, battery size and charging setup, though these details should come to light as its arrival next year approaches. The EQS electric sedan will also spawn an EQE “business saloon” model, which we imagine will be slightly smaller and about the size of a Mercedes-Benz E-Class. There will also be separate SUV variants of both the EQS and EQE, which will also use the same dedicated all-electric architecture.
In a statement, Mercedes-Benz’s vice president of EV architecture, Christoph Starzynski, said the “EQS has already piled up far more than two million test kilometers from the heat of South Africa to the cold of Northern Sweden,” ahead of its arrival next year.
“The EQS will be the S-Class of electric vehicles,” Starzynski added. “That is why it is undergoing the same demanding development program as any other vehicle that has the privilege of proudly bearing the three-pointed star.”
Cadillac has been extremely cagey with details on the new Celestiq sedan, so it’s hard to say how it will match up against the EQS. We know the concept version of the sedan will be bigger than the already large Cadillac CT6 and will feature an extremely luxurious cabin with a 2+2 seating arrangement. The fully electric four-door will be mostly hand-built (apart from the battery packs and underlying BEV3 platform) and will cost around $200,000 USD. It’s not expected to hit the market for a few more years, so General Motors will be keeping a close eye on rivals like the EQS to benchmark the Celestiq with.
We’ll have all the official details on the new Mercedes-Benz EQS and Cadillac Celestiq electric sedans as soon as they become available.
Comments
Mercedes EQS has to beat out the Lucid Air in Specs when it comes out.
The Celestiq will be out much later. Cadillac will have plenty of time to Benchmark both of them.
“The EQS will be the S-Class of electric vehicles,”
But this will be a Celestiq competition?. I say that because the Celestiq is aiming for Bentley and Maybach.
Bentley Flying Spur I believe starts at $225,000
Cadillac better have some serious attention to detail and Build Quality.
I personally cannot wait to see what they bring to the Party.
S-Class spans from around $100K to $150K in AMG form, and then to over $200K in Maybach form… so the Celestiq will be within that general wheelhouse.
Good Point on the Maybach version. I can totally see that.
I do not think AMG Customers are looking for Pure Luxury though. Two different Customer Base I would say.
Unfortunately, today, Cadillac is no longer an option in the category of the top notch manufacturers. They have presented gorgeous models that remained just prototypes, but after that they simply disillusioned all of us with the current range that no longer fits to the previous “standard of the world”. Not even close! Not even the new Escalade did not convince everybody. The exterior design is lacking high class and in many statistics most of people would prefer the new exterior of the new GMC Yukon Denali, some of them with interior of Escalade (see Autoblog). It’s definitely a pity. Would they someday raise from the dead? I would wish yes, but I have strong doubts…
Everything you said is a matter of opinion. There are over 6K preorders of the Escalade and counting since announced a while back. And a lot of people also like the looks of the Escalade over the Denali. I prefer the looks of the Escalade over the Denali for ’21 and there more than enough reason to get this generation model over the Denali.
I like GM but Cadillac is not on Mercedes Radar. Someone appears to suffer from visions of grandeur.
@Iroc
I still hold the opinion that Cadillac stands the chance to become a Tier One Luxury Brand again with the Switch to EV’s. It will be their last chance they get sop they better make the best of it.
Their upcoming EV’s need to be zero Compromise vehicles.
Mercedes and BMW do not have a Huge Parent Company to spread the R&D of BEV’s like Audi does with VW and Cadillac has with GM.
if past performance is any indication, cadillac has a chance … slim and none.
GM miss management will not, can not make Cadillac 1st tier! GM needs 1st tier management to do that. Gm has nowhere near 1st tier management. Hope I am wrong that GM miss management will flub up the electric car deal totally but im not!
The Cellestiq will never be built. It’s merely a fantasy for Mark Ruess that GM won’t even show us and certainly will never build. And if they are stupid enough to build a $200,000. Cadillac, nobody is going to buy it. GM doesn’t understand this but luxury cars are about cachet and prestige. All of those elements have been squandered at Cadillac so there’s no brand equity left to make a $200K Cadillac a viable proposition.
All they have left is to sell $40,000. FWD SUVs to ignorant people who still believe the Cadillac name means something and the number of people who still believe that is shrinking every day. They are not even close to being in the same league as Mercedes-Benz. Everyone outside of Detroit knows that. Mark Ruess is living in fantasyland if he really believes GM will build a hand-built car and actually find people to buy it. I know he is GM but the bean counter Board will for sure overrule him.
I’m sure GM is looking at this post for consultation…..
I have to agree with ci2eye. Cadillac just doesn’t have the Cachet for a 200k car to sell. It wont be built, and if it does it wont have the customer base to buy it. Its just not who they are, and that’s ok.
They didn’t have the cachet when they decide to do that in the 1920s-50s but turned out the most desirable automobiles ever. With the E/V powertrain I’m interested to see what GM can do in the ultra luxury market again. Not looking back to a retirement Caddy sedan like they made but would like to see a CT6 replacement soon.
did the lyriq blow you away?
if it didn’t blow you away today, it is going to be absolutely mediocre in two years when it finally goes into production.
Lyriq looks pretty nice, looks better then Tesla’s IPad wannabe designs. Considering Lyriq will be $150k less than Celestiq should indicate the effort Caddy put into it.
PEG!!!! GM miss managment has turned Cadillac into a 3rd rate JOKE!
Fully agree. Cadillac is missing vision and quality management. In this formation they have no chance. It’s a pity that such a past glory will remain a matter of the past only.
Guest,
I’m sure too. I’m waiting on my phone to ring.
JdN understood, Cadillac had a long hard road back to respectability and relevance. When he left apparently sanity did too. I’m pretty sure though that the Board of Directors will ultimately reign in any ‘visions of grandeur’ as Iroc characterized it above. A $200,000. hand-built, electric Cadillac sedan is definitely an irrational vision of grandeur.
I like most on this site really wish and hope the Cadillac line would compete with Mercedes – Audi – and BMW.
However the fact is GM has been trying that for over 30 years now !
What and why would anyone here think NOW with EVs this would be any different ?
Merced’s HAS the cred, Audi has the cred, Cadillac is a joke not only in the USA but around the world with the exception of China.
And the rest of the world is surely not , for a few years yet, going to say, ” I really want to be like those rich Chinese”.
My prediction is GM ends Buick and GMC.
GM mite make one GMC but it will simply be a Denali or AT4 or Hummer.
Buick will make one SUV, called the Enclave Avenir or just Avenir.
GM sells the Cadillac name to Great Wall Motors in China, where the Chinese truly make a great Cadillac once again that in 20 years dominates the world of luxury.
And GM retreats even farther into Trucks and BLAH grocery getters under the Chevrolet name.
To understand the future, it helps to look back at the past when GM also had illusions of grandeur.
https://www.motortrend.com/news/super-caddy-v12-powered-zetabased-cadillac-coming-402/
I was excited about this car; the Zeta-based ‘LTS’ that was being developed. I was excited about CT6….and the even grander CT8 that was coming.
Knowing that the story always ends the same means I am not excited about Cellestiq. Fool me once, fool me twice…..
I am excited about the EQS. I know Mercedes will deliver.
I don’t recall reading that article back in’07. I remember that GM wanted to put a V12 in the Escalade when they did a XV12 prototype in the second gen. model.
However, if I recall, they did announce back in ’12 that the ultra luxury Cadillac was discontinued due to the styling looking too much alike the CT6 which shelved the program.
within a couple years of that article in 2007, we had a global recession and gm declared bankruptcy.
i don’t blame them for reprioritizing but it has been over 10 years and cadillac is still floundering.
GM management is to stupid to pull it off. Cadillac is dead face it! After years of cutbacks and homogenization there is no relevant future for Cadillac. Thanks GM management for your rampaging incompetence….
It’s amazing how the vitriol flows regarding domestic versus foreign luxury cars. In its early history, Cadillac did things the German brands never dreamed of. Any idiot engineering firm can design a ruinously expensive car that costs a fortune to maintain and drive just for the hubris of it all. Mercedes and BMW are really good at that. All of their advantages dissappear when the motive force is an electrical motor. Their real engineering expertise is fossil fuel engines. Most of their key power train component designs are from suppliers – example- GM built BMW transmissions for decades…..If Bosch has a good motor control system, then the German makes will be OK. We’ll see whose electric luxury is competitive with Tesla…