Report: Battery Shortage Has Mercedes-Benz's Newest EV Struggling to Clear the Tower

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

The countdown to Mercedes-Benz EQC production last year was preceded by stories about the model’s anticipated range and uncontroversial styling, but when the time came to get EQCs into the hands of buyers, the electric crossover had trouble leaving the launch pad.

Not long after reports emerged of the EQC’s U.S. arrival being delayed by a full year, a German outlet claims Mercedes-Benz has chopped its 2020 production target in half.

Manager Magazin stated Thursday that a battery cell supply issue has forced the automaker to drop its production target from 60,000 to 30,000 for the current year, Reuters reports. Mercedes-Benz’s battery provider, LG Chem, sits at the heart of the issue.

While the production prediction could place the automaker in hot water with EU regulators, the supply issue doesn’t look like a new thing. Mercedes-Benz had hoped to deliver 25,000 EQCs in calendar year 2019, Manager Magazin reports, but only managed to get off about 7,000 of them.

As production struggles to ramp up, German and European customers will obviously be first in line to receive a vehicle they likely have already reserved. Whether Mercedes-Benz can build enough of them to offset enough of its gas- and diesel-burning products remains to be seen. A recent report claimed the automaker could be on the hook for $1.1 billion in emissions-related fines if it doesn’t get its environmental act together.

Under a new emissions mandate that goes into effect this year, all automakers who exceed their newly lowered fleetwide emissions limits will have to pay the piper. The required reductions are not small, leaving many automakers — Mercedes-Benz among them — contemplating model or engine culls. That, or turning certain models or configurations into limited-availability offerings.

The EQC was expected to arrive this spring in the United States. Recently, dealers were told that its journey stateside won’t occur for at least a year, placing its entry date in spring or early summer of 2021. The delay hands an advantage to rivals like Audi and BMW.

[Image: Daimler AG]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Offbeat Oddity Offbeat Oddity on Jan 23, 2020

    My family and I drove a 2019 RAV4 as a rental and had mixed feelings about it. Pros were that it rode and handled well. It also got 31 mpg overall despite the fact that it had to be driven aggressively on MA's roads- we only filled it up once during the week we drove it. Cons were that my mom and I found the rear seats very uncomfortable. You sat low in the seat, and it reminded me of sitting in a car. We also noticed that the engine was quite load and that the interior materials- at least in the back- were low rent and nothing special.

  • HotPotato HotPotato on Jan 25, 2020

    "The delay hands an advantage to rivals like Audi and BMW" You mean the company whose EV CUV effort is equally overexpensive and underwhelming, and the company that hasn't got one? You don't think the advantage goes to -- oh God, can you get the word past your lips? -- Tesla? The company that was smart enough to make batteries in house, BTW? JFC. The only thing more annoying than a Tesla superfan is a Tesla hater.

  • MaintenanceCosts It's going to have to go downmarket a bit not to step on the Land Cruiser's toes.
  • Lorenzo Since EVs don't come in for oil changes, their owners don't have their tires rotated regularly, something the dealers would have done. That's the biggest reason they need to buy a new set of tires sooner, not that EVs wear out tires appreciably faster.
  • THX1136 Always liked the Mustang though I've never owned one. I remember my 13 yo self grabbing some Ford literature that Oct which included the brochure for the Mustang. Using my youthful imagination I traced the 'centerfold' photo of the car AND extending the roof line back to turn it into a small wagon version. At the time I thought it would be a cool variant to offer. What was I thinking?!
  • GregLocock That's a bodge, not a solution. Your diff now has bits of broken off metal floating around in it.
  • The Oracle Well, we’re 3-4 years in with the Telluride and right around the time the long term durability issues start to really take hold. This is sad.
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