Mercedes shows us a working EQA electric car driving through Sicily

The closing words of this video say "Concept EQA," so don't be under any illusions that the production car is going to be exactly like this prototype, but Mercedes has released a video of its planned small electric car in action, chewing up the scenery in Sicily.

Last fall when it debuted at the Frankfurt Motor Show, we called it Bladerunner's electrified A-Class, and based on this video, that description still fits. The video shows in action a design feature we described from Frankfurt thusly: "The 'virtual radiator grille' highlights the EQA's two driving modes with either an LED 'wing' motif in Sport, or red verticals mimicking a Panamerica grille when in Sport Plus." The video also lets us see the "illuminated arabesques" on the EQA's flanks, along with some other fascinating lighting features. It would be cool to think all this futuristic design will make it into production. Who knows.

The EQA hatchback will get batteries of various outputs, topping out at more than 200 kilowatts, powering a motor in front and in back, with a possible maximum torque of more than 368 pound-feet and a 0-to-60 time of around 5 seconds. And all with a possible maximum range of around 250 miles on a charge, which can even be done inductively.

Daimler is spending nearly $600 million to ready its Smart plant in Hambach, France, to start building the EQA. First to market for Mercedes is the EQC, an electric crossover based on the GLC, scheduled for 2019. But the EQA will be out shortly after, part of Mercedes' electric onslaught of more than 10 EV models by 2022.