- The EQC 4×42 is a lifted, off-road-ready version of the Mercedes-Benz EQC crossover.
- It has a higher ride height and more aggressive approach and departure angles than a stock G-class.
- This version of the EQC is a one-off and unlikely to ever make it to production, so don’t get your hopes up.
While we await the arrival next year of the Mercedes-Benz EQC, the first fully electric vehicle from Mercedes, the brand has given us a little something to dream about with images of a new EQC 4×42 concept. The concept rides higher than a Mercedes-Benz G-class, has better approach and departure angles, and wears a roof rack, fender flares, and a tow hitch to drive the message home. The only bad news here is that Mercedes is unlikely ever to turn this sustainable off-roader into a production vehicle.
This EQC is the third member of Mercedes’s 4×42 family. In 2018, we drove a G550 4×42 and that one actually did enter series production. Also in 2018, Mercedes blessed us with an overlanding version of the E-class wagon called the E400 All-Terrain 4×42. The EQC concept carries on the spirit of those cars with its 11.5 inches of ground clearance (compared to 5.5 inches in the production version), off-road tires, fender flares, and the ability to tow a trailer or host a rooftop tent.
The concept is based on an all-wheel-drive EQC400, which gets 402 horsepower from its two electric motors. The team of Mercedes engineers tasked with making this concept wilderness-ready gave it portal axles, which allow the wheels to sit below the center of the axle. A new Off-Road drive mode uses what Mercedes calls “targeted brake interventions” to help the EQC even out its torque curve to improve traction when taking off on loose ground. Mercedes says a roof rack could be installed or a trailer towed, though sadly neither claim is supported with photo evidence.
If the goal is to convince skeptical buyers that electric vehicles can be be rugged and capable, too, this seems like a good place to start. But Mercedes has missed one key point: they highlight the EQC’s ability to make a quiet early-morning getaway from a campsite as a merit. Don’t they know that blasting the whole campground awake with gratuitous exhaust noise and noxious fumes is half the fun?
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Source: Motor - aranddriver.com
