Why Mercedes’ $100,000 Electric Jellybean Flopped
The German automaker’s limousine customers care as much about comfort and status as saving the planet. Now they should worry about residual values too.
The electric jellybean.
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/BloombergWhen Mercedes-Benz Group AG unveiled a luxury electric sedan called the EQS in 2021 managers boasted about the radical aerodynamic design, billing it as the German automaker’s most significant launch in decades. Film director James Cameron and singer Alicia Keys were on hand to add their own superlatives for a vehicle that cost in excess of $100,000.
Three years later, the electric version of the flagship S-Class risks becoming one of the biggest flops in Mercedes’ storied history, and its shortcomings have contributed to the company’s decision to ditch a goal of selling only electric vehicles by 2030.1