Mercedes-Benz has spoiled the most important detail of its debut in the big electric car

The Mercedes-Benz EQC is one of the most important cars that the company will launch ever. It is the first participant in an entirely new range of fully electric cars, the spearhead for a completely different propulsion platform designed to reduce emissions worldwide. He was teased by the company for two years. And yet, the day of its announcement, Mercedes-Benz has undoubtedly noted the most important detail: how long will last the battery of the EQC.

One of the main obstacles since the beginnings of mass production of electric vehicles has been the scope. This is one of the key factors limiting adoption in a 2012 RAND Corporation study and the term "Range Anxiety" – which clearly describes the low-level fear that EVs will not be able to handle. may need to do it on a given day – has been a popular topic of discussion over the years as companies worked to increase battery performance.

But more than 3.5 million electric vehicles have been sold worldwide so far, and the adoption rate is rising steadily, according to a new study by Bloomberg new energy research division. Obstacles obviously become more easily surmountable.

Let's briefly leave aside the discussion of whether 200 miles of spacing is enough or not and focus on what happened. In the official press material of the EQC provided by Mercedes-Benz (and the email that accompanies it), the company has indicated four times that the car should have a range of about 200 miles. This figure was considered a "preliminary estimate", and at one point he even said "up to 200 miles". The parent company Daimler said in its statement that it expected about 450 km of battery. full charge, which runs at about 279 miles.

On paper, it's a huge gap. When most of the competition in the thriving luxury electric SUV sector is about 250 miles away, you want to at least match or even beat that number. For a brief period Tuesday afternoon, the Mercedes-Benz EQC seemed to live in a quantum state where it was both far from the range offered by the Tesla Model Xes and the Jaguar I-Paces of the world. and almost blew them out of the water.

The distance of 279 miles from Daimler has since been adopted by Mercedes-Benz, the correct rating advancing The edge that the 200-mile figure was "incorrect" and scattered by mistake through the 52-page press release – no joke – and other documents on the EQC.

In fact, the gap is not as big as it seems, and the EQC should still fall short of the range offered by I-Pace and the X 75D model. This is because the 279-mile estimate is based on what is known as the new European driving cycle (NEDC), a standard created in the 1980s that leads to purely theoretical methods, termed "outdated" by the European Union.

NEDC is currently being replaced by a new standard this month – based on real tests – called the Global Harmonized Test Procedure for Light Vehicles (WLTP), supposedly a little stricter. The US Environmental Protection Agency conducts its own tests to set range estimates for electric cars. EPA estimates have always tended to be lower than NEDC estimates and are considered closer to actual performance.

Considering I-Pace as an example, Jaguar says the car has a range of 470 km (292 miles), and the company has promoted a NEDC estimate of 500 km (310 miles) before its release. But the EPA says the I-Pace lasts about 240 miles, or 386 km, with a full charge. So while Mercedes-Benz is now touting the 279-mile NEDC figure, the actual performance of the EQC is likely to be closer to the initial estimate of "about 200 miles" that the company has described as "incorrect".

"We use NEDC to evaluate the range to facilitate comparisons," said a spokeswoman for Mercedes-Benz. The edge. "The 450 km NEDC approximation is all we have right now."

Regardless of the scope of the EQC, 200 miles are ample to cover most daily commutes. The Ministry of Transportation says the average driver in the United States travels 29 miles a day. That said, people like to buy cars that can cover as many different scenarios as possible, although some rarely occur. In addition, many people make travel more than 29 miles a day. Given the scale of battery technology over the last decade, more than 200 miles of battery life do not seem to be extremely difficult. Just watch the Mercedes-Benz competition, which, again, serves around 250 miles or more.

There are many other factors that go into the purchase of a car, especially an electric car, in addition to the range. The price remains a huge problem, as is the charging time, especially for people who have no space at home to charge their car overnight. But the range is one of the most popular specifications for electric cars. That's why it was amazing that Mercedes-Benz was not ready with the right numbers for the start of the EQC.

If the anxiety of the range really fades away, maybe it will not matter, and the EQC will become a perfectly adapted EV of Mercedes-Benz that sets the tone for the future. After all, SUVs are currently selling as car-sized cakes, and the EQC looks like a very well-equipped vehicle. But sliding on this crucial detail, Mercedes-Benz has ensured that the focus is primarily on the range. It is now up to the company to change the subject before the car is delivered in 2020.

Update September 5 at 5:31 pm ET: Addition of a Mercedes-Benz comment.