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Mercedes-Benz Model Nomenclature is Getting Ridiculous

Mercedes-Benz Plug-in Hybrids 1 photo
Photo: Daimler AG
It's not easy being in charge of a multinational company that has probably tens of departments and hundreds if not thousands of people working in marketing. In my view, that doesn't make it OK for the people in charge of Mercedes-Benz branding to keep changing the nomenclature of models each time someone from marketing has a seemingly great new naming scheme.
This is especially true when it comes to such an established carmaker, otherwise known as the inventor of the modern automobile.

For those wondering what on Earth I am on about, please bear with me. A lot of carmakers have decided to completely revamp the way in which they name their models in recent years, and you probably agree that most of those changes were met with criticism at first.

For example, it took at least a year or so until people started to acknowledge and a little more than that until they understood Infiniti's latest model nomenclature. You know, when the G-Series was replaced by the Q50 and then briefly returned from the dead as the G40.

Something similar happened when the BMW 3 Series Coupe became the 4 Series, or when Mercedes-Benz decided to overhaul the naming strategy for its SUV lineup entirely.

I am not at all angry with these name changes, though, mostly because they all make sense in one way or another. For example, I think it's perfectly natural for Stuttgart to align its SUVs and crossovers with their corresponding sedans regarding names, a strategy that should do wonders for brand perception in the long run, especially since the lineup is continuously expanding.

No, I think Mercedes-Benz is guilty about something a lot worse, and it all comes down to making changes for the sake of making changes and nothing else.

Let's recap for a bit. Until 2014, all go-fast versions of Mercedes models were named something along the lines of “Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG.” In 2017, the “Benz” particle has disappeared, being replaced by “AMG.” Nothing out of the ordinary so far, right? This change, in particular, coincided with the disappearance of the “Benz” particle from Maybach version as well, so it's all good.

At the same time, all run-of-the-mill Mercedes-Benz models received new designations as well, which depend on what type of propulsion can be found under the hood. In layman terms, d is for diesels, h is for hybrids and e is for electrics and plug-in hybrids.

That is all fine and dandy, you might say, except Mercedes-Benz is preparing yet another name change for its models. I don't know about you guys, but this has really started to get on my nerves. Remember the 2015 Mercedes-Benz S 500 Plug-in Hybrid? Well, as it happens, not even six months after being officially unveiled, during which time it was also tested by autoevolution, the model got renamed to S 500 e.

Fast forward to early 2017, when the press release accompanying the reveal of the latest Mercedes-Benz F1 car specifies that “from the forthcoming facelift of the S-Class, all future Mercedes-Benz Plug-In Hybrids will carry the designation “EQ Power.” On top of it, future Mercedes-AMG hybrids will receive the EQ Power+ name.

Combined with the odd description for what “EQ” apparently means (Electric Intelligence, ed), this whole continuously changing naming strategy is getting a bit long in the tooth and will probably have some adverse consequences in the long run.

Reinventing yourself is good, but doing it at the expense of tradition and/or familiarity with a product's lineage sounds like a recipe for disaster. Of course, I'm mildly exaggerating here, but Mercedes-Benz does risk alienating a lot of new customers it has made in the last couple of years or so if it continues on this somewhat schizophrenic path. It probably lost a few when it decided to no longer name its cars after the size of their engines, but this is getting ridiculous.

There's one thing to drive a car called the C300, which is powered by a 2.0-liter engine, and another to rename it three times over the span of two years. A similar offender is the Mercedes-AMG C43, which was originally unveiled as the Mercedes-Benz C 450 AMG Sport and then got renamed about a year later. To top it all, it's not even a real AMG of the “one man, one engine” variety, but the biggest culprit in my view is the sudden decision to abolish a brand new sub-brand after so little time.

If this trend keeps up, the next-generation S-Class might be called the U-Class, since “uber” sounds a hell of a lot cooler than “sonder,” doesn't it?
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About the author: Alex Oagana
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Alex handled his first real steering wheel at the age of five (on a field) and started practicing "Scandinavian Flicks" at 14 (on non-public gravel roads). Following his time at the University of Journalism, he landed his first real job at the local franchise of Top Gear magazine a few years before Mircea (Panait). Not long after, Alex entered the New Media realm with the autoevolution.com project.
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