Mercedes Is Hoping This New SUV Can Achieve Big Things

The new electric GLC is the first mainstream Benz to drop the company's EQ naming convention, and it's also "the next step in its biggest ever product launch program." Benz plans to reveal the all-new GLC with EQ Technology at the IAA Mobility Show in Munich this September, along with the first auto show appearance of the new CLA and the electric CLA Shooting Brake.

To whet your appetite for the new GLC EQ, Mercedes revealed a teaser showing just the new light-up grille. It's a very busy image, with numerous light pixels making up a modern digital version of a classic Mercedes-Benz grille design. After the automaker took some criticism for the ultra-minimal designs of grilles on the EQS and EQE, going so far as to add faux chrome strips into the flat panel, this feels like a solution that will appeal to audiences old and new.

GLC, Gas Or Electric, Is A Big Deal

Mercedes-Benz has dug out all the adjectives to describe the new GLC, saying it is "purposeful, refined, and unmistakably a GLC, and calling it "iconic, versatile, intuitive, and smooth." The GLC is the highest-selling Benz model, so there is a lot of pressure on this EV to perform.

That wouldn't be much to go on ahead of the show, but fortunately, we've already had some looks at the new GLC. Benz itself released a selection of teaser images showing a carefully camouflaged GLC EQ meant to give us a better idea as to what it might look like. It revealed a shape more akin to an Acura than a Mercedes-Benz, though this new grille teaser shows that it won't look like something from the Japanese brand when it goes on sale.

Preliminary details have also been provided, including new materials introduced to improve energy density. It's finally coming to America.

Some photos captured by the CarBuzz spy photographers late last year show a vehicle that won't stray far from the current GLC. Which, given that this is Mercedes-Benz, isn't a surprise.

Second-Gen Electric Compact Benz SUV Gets New Platform

The GLC with EQ Technology will be new to the US, and it will replace the EQC in Europe. But while it won't use the EQC name this time – Benz is dropping that – it will no longer be a gas GLC underneath. Instead, this model will use the MB.EA architecture that includes features like an 800-volt electrical system and more efficient silicon carbide inverters.

The new electric platform will support up to 320 kW DC fast charging rates, one of the best on the market. Other new electric-specific features will include a new brake system that combines the master cylinder, brake booster, and stability control system into one unit for quicker responses. It will also have a multi-source heat pump that can use atmospheric energy to warm the cabin, but can also use waste heat from the motor and battery to reduce the range hit of climate control.

This is the first of two new SUVs based on the MB.EA Medium electric architecture that Mercedes said would be coming. We're not yet certain on the second, but a replacement for the EQB (which ends production this year) is a possibility. Or, in typical German fashion, the second model could be a GLC Coupe electric variant. This EQ will not replace the gas GLC, but is expected to sell alongside it.