Mentioning the acronym EQ means talking about the electric family of Mercedes, which faces the end of 2022 with news. They welcome not a new model, but a new property: Mercedes has opened its first dealership dedicated exclusively to selling its electric cars. Of course, it is not very close to Europe.
The German manufacturer’s roadmap lists 2030 as the year in which it will become an electrical brand. To do this, it has shaped an extensive family made up of the Mercedes EQA, EQB, EQC, EQE, EQE SUV, EQS, EQS SUV, EQT and EQV. This will be joined by others (such as the EQG) aimed at further strengthening Stuttgart’s electric vehicle offensive.
Foreign brands in Japan
Now, Mercedes has opened the doors of a dealership where drivers can only buy one of these models. It has done it in Japan: why? The reason must be found in the numbers: in 2021, they sold 51,722 cars in the country of the rising sun. A figure that makes Mercedes the best-selling foreign vehicle brand there, according to data from the Japan Automobile Importers Association (JAIA).
Electric cars have been slow to catch on in Japan, where domestic manufacturers have dominated the market…until now. In November 2022, foreign brands broke a record: sold 2,357 models, exceeding, for the first time, one tenth of the total sales of imported vehicles.
The five electric cars of Mercedes
Since 2019, Mercedes has launched five electric models in Japan: a country where it sees further growth in that segment. The brand now doubles its bet with a dealer only for these vehicles: located in Yokohama, it has an area of 1,221 square meters and space to exhibit up to seven vehicles. for now, only five will be available and, among them, will be the flagship: the Mercedes EQS.
The Mercedes electric car dealer (which, in the future, will have solar panels) will offer test drives, a specific place for the delivery of the vehicles, workshop service and three CHAdeMO chargers. The most interesting, however, will be the systems Vehicle to Home (V2H): one of the two-way charging modes that allows the car to provide energy to a home.
In a country like Japan where weather events can wreak serious havoc such as prolonged blackouts, two-way charging can become quite the solution. A conventional home can consume 5-10 kWh in a day and With a vehicle whose battery has a capacity of 70 kWh, a family could have electricity for several hours. Mercedes has already announced that some of its models will far exceed that figure.
Finally, the Mercedes electric car dealer will offer the service MB Rent. With it, they want to give drivers the opportunity to try one of their EQ models for a set period of time so they know what it would be like to have it on a day-to-day basis.