Photo: Mercedes-Benz
If you're one of those people who is sick of seeing nothing else than door handles whenever you look out the window of your perfectly fine sedan or station wagon stopped at a traffic light, then you might regard the rise of the EVs as one of the potential solutions to the problem.
After all, it makes sense. Battery-powered vehicles are all about efficiency, and if there's one thing we've learned about SUVs all this time is that they don't go light on fuel. With that bulky shape and literally tons of mass, they don't do a great job at slicing through the air with grace and economy.
Surely, a type of vehicle that prides itself with being green is going to steer clear of such monstrosities, right? It's not like the electric powertrain is going to do anything to bring the weight down, but quite the opposite. Plus, the batteries sandwiched under the floor tend to give the car a few extra inches of height, making efficient aerodynamics even trickier.
However much sense this rationale makes, you only need to look at the market to see it's wrong. Tesla's lineup is divided equally between sedans and SUVs/crossovers now (Models S and 3 on the one side and X and Y on the other) with the Cybertruck pickup on the way. Jaguar kicked it off with the I-Pace crossover, BMW is looking to relaunch its EV efforts with the iX3 model based on the X3 SUV, and Mercedes-Benz has also chosen a lifted model for its first battery-powered vehicle developed from the ground up.
Next, the Daimler brand plans two more crossovers - the EQA and EQB, the electric equivalents of the GLA- and GLB-Class. There's also the EQS luxury sedan, but it somehow seems lost among this company. Volkswagen appears to have gone a different route with the ID.3, but rest assured, the ID4 is coming and it will be, you guessed it, a crossover.
Apparently, there's an explanation for that. Talking to British magazine Autocar, Daimler's chief designer, Gordon Wagener made it very clear that, at least as far as Mercedes-Benz is concerned, the SUV body style isn't going anywhere anytime soon, despite the switch to electric.
“If you look at electric cars, you’re adding a battery that’s probably six inches in height,” he said. “But even six inches can make a car more SUV-like from the off. I think we will see more of that.” Well, it looks like people's love for SUVs outweighs their concerns over the limitations this body style imposes on range anyway, so it's all for the better. Except for that apparently dying breed of people who are sick of seeing nothing else than door handles whenever they look out the window of their perfectly fine sedan or station wagon stopped at a traffic light.
Surely, a type of vehicle that prides itself with being green is going to steer clear of such monstrosities, right? It's not like the electric powertrain is going to do anything to bring the weight down, but quite the opposite. Plus, the batteries sandwiched under the floor tend to give the car a few extra inches of height, making efficient aerodynamics even trickier.
However much sense this rationale makes, you only need to look at the market to see it's wrong. Tesla's lineup is divided equally between sedans and SUVs/crossovers now (Models S and 3 on the one side and X and Y on the other) with the Cybertruck pickup on the way. Jaguar kicked it off with the I-Pace crossover, BMW is looking to relaunch its EV efforts with the iX3 model based on the X3 SUV, and Mercedes-Benz has also chosen a lifted model for its first battery-powered vehicle developed from the ground up.
Next, the Daimler brand plans two more crossovers - the EQA and EQB, the electric equivalents of the GLA- and GLB-Class. There's also the EQS luxury sedan, but it somehow seems lost among this company. Volkswagen appears to have gone a different route with the ID.3, but rest assured, the ID4 is coming and it will be, you guessed it, a crossover.
Apparently, there's an explanation for that. Talking to British magazine Autocar, Daimler's chief designer, Gordon Wagener made it very clear that, at least as far as Mercedes-Benz is concerned, the SUV body style isn't going anywhere anytime soon, despite the switch to electric.
“If you look at electric cars, you’re adding a battery that’s probably six inches in height,” he said. “But even six inches can make a car more SUV-like from the off. I think we will see more of that.” Well, it looks like people's love for SUVs outweighs their concerns over the limitations this body style imposes on range anyway, so it's all for the better. Except for that apparently dying breed of people who are sick of seeing nothing else than door handles whenever they look out the window of their perfectly fine sedan or station wagon stopped at a traffic light.
Google News