Merc EQC AMG Line Premium

Mercedes’ CEO Dieter Zetsche says this car matters because CO2 reduction does.

- Paul Horrell

1.2 crore (estimated)

Mercedes’ CEO Dieter Zetsche says this car matters because CO2 reduction does. He reckons “mankind’s greatest achievement” is the Paris climate accord. As the conversation moves on, I fail to make the obvious riposte. Tesla is a company that has dedicated itself to decarbonising the car, whereas the EQC has a problem: green-minded customers won’t want to buy their carbon-light car from the guys who build the G63 AMG. But then, Tesla seldom makes money. Mercedes is old enough to have learned that selling environmentally catastrophic V8-engined SUVs to the short-sightedly selfish is good business. It generates the profits necessary to finance the all-electric EQC.

Precisely because the EQC comes from a different philosophical and business starting point than the Tesla Model X, it has turned out very different: the electric car you’d expect a petrol-car company to make. Jaguar might have looked outward when making the I-Pace, but Mercedes has looked in. The EQC is resolutely normal. Good, but really normal.