Mercedes-Benz has been working on building interest in its EQC electric crossover since before it was debuted at CES earlier this year, and now it would seem that US buyers are the victims of Mercedes' success.
Specifically, Mercedes is delaying the US release of the EQC by a year -- pushing it back to 2021-- because of massive interest in the vehicle from European buyers, according to a report published Friday by Automotive News.
"The EQC launch in Europe and other markets earlier in 2019 generated high interest worldwide for the EQC. In a recent direction from Daimler AG, it is a strategic decision to first support the growing customer demand for the EQC in Europe," said Mercedes-Benz representatives, in a statement. "As a result of this decision, the U.S. market launch date of the Mercedes-Benz EQC will be rescheduled to 2021 (originally Q1 2020)."
Another reason that folks from Mercedes' home office decided to push back may involve the fact that the European Union decided in April to require that automakers reduce their fleet emissions by 37.5% by 2030. Having a head start on selling zero-emission EVs would go a long way toward helping Mercedes reach that goal ahead of schedule, something it could also use to promote even more EV sales.
The downside is that as EVs continue to gain in popularity here in the US, Mercedes dealers will have to watch even more of their sales go to brands like Tesla, Audi and Jaguar.
