They Don't Need One, but Mercedes-Benz Promises Grilles on All Future Electrics

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

The one and only styling refresh bestowed on Tesla’s Model S involved the removal of its phony grille, with CEO Elon Musk claiming the blacked-out nose had done its duty in luring — and lulling — nervous customers. The subsequent Model X went without, and the Model 3 looks like that masked disfigured girl in Eyes Without a Face.

Mercedes-Benz isn’t on the same page. Perhaps believing that Tesla buyers tolerate the lack of grille only because the vehicles are Teslas, the German automaker has vowed to pretend there’s an internal combustion engine and radiator behind the face of each of its electric vehicles.

The brand’s 2020 EQC, unveiled earlier this week, looks a lot like the model from which it derives its platform: the GLC crossover. Sure, there’s dimensional differences and a different take on the front facia, but the two vehicles remain outwardly similar. That’s no accident.

Speaking to Autocar, M-B sales and marketing chief Jorg Heinermann said, “We have deliberately decided to take a step-by-step approach here.” The old electric B-Class notwithstanding, M-B’s foray into electric vehicles is a recent endeavor, and the first order of business is not scaring off potential or returning customers with a jarring EV. The EQC’s conservative exterior will give way to more radical designs, Heinermann said.

The automaker’s interior designer, Hartmut Sinkwitz, added, “[The EQC] is the starting point for the electric family. We felt this is the right amount of revolution to start with for this car. You will see more with other EQ models.”

As mentioned, one thing that won’t change when these wilder models roll out (M-B plans 10 EQ-badged battery-electric vehicles by 2022) is the grille. While concealed coolant lines can keep a battery pack and electric motor from overheating, grilles needn’t serve a mechanical function.

Basically, said exterior designer Robert Lesnik, Mercedes-Benz customers are used to a grille, they like having a grille, and they don’t want to part with a grille.

Without one, “the car would be faceless,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if there needs to be an air intake or not. We believe that every EQ car needs a certain shape in the front. There are many other car companies that are experimenting [without a grille], because they don’t have 130 years of history. That’s not what we’re going to do.”

[Image: Daimler AG]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Inside Looking Out Inside Looking Out on Sep 08, 2018

    Three point star on so called "grill" is too SMALL. They should make it BIG or even BIGGER so people know that it is not a Hyundai. I am impressed though how good MB designers are - so progressive and so transparent at same time!

  • Zipper69 Zipper69 on Apr 29, 2020

    Why? Because we have a century of expecting to see the "mouth" on the "face" of a car. I'm surprised that some enterprising small manufacturer hasn't designed and sold false grilles to liven up the guppy fronts of the Tesla range...

  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
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