Mercedes: Luxurious family friend
STUDY CONCEPT EQT What is small, and how big can compact be? Mercedes-Benz has a new answer to this: the T-Class, which will be launched in 2022, is intended to appeal primarily to families and leisure-oriented private customers. The new model series, of which the near-production Concept EQT study has now been presented, is the successor to the Citan and will [...]
The new model series, of which the near-production Concept EQT study has now been presented, is the successor to the Citan and, like its predecessor, will be based on the Renault Kangoo. This time, however, the differences are to be greater.
According to expectations
Both are built together in Maubeuge in northern France. Compared with its predecessor, the family van has been significantly improved. In contrast to the Citan previously offered, the T-Class comes with all the features customers expect from a model with a star.
Even if not all details from the Concept EQT are carried over into series production, the new van comes to customers in a significantly higher quality than the Citan offered to date.
Comfortable seven-seater
The elegant but delicate white leather in the interior will probably give way to a more family-friendly solution, as will the electric longboard fitted in the rear, which takes individual electromobility one step further - at least for people with a keen sense of balance.
What will remain are the three Isofix connections for child seats in the second row and the two full-size seats in the third row, which mutate the T-Class into a comfortable seven-seater.
Thanks to the wide-opening sliding side doors, the rear is easily accessible, and the headroom of the 1.82-meter-high van is also sufficient for adults. The luggage compartment alone is then considerably smaller.
Motorizations and ranges still unclear
In addition to the variants with combustion engines (Mercedes-Benz is still silent about the engine range), the T-Class will also be launched as an all-electric variant with the typical EQ face and rear as the EQT.
However, there is no word yet on the range and technical details. Thanks to the fast charging option, the time at the charging station should be short and family-friendly.
In the interior, the T-Class adopts the MBUX (Mercedes-Benz User Experience) infotainment system, which, as in the EQS, is capable of learning thanks to artificial intelligence. For example, the system registers the habits of the people behind the wheel and suggests stops if the journey there has been regularly interrupted in the past.
The other MBUX services such as real-time traffic information and updates via remote data transmission have also been adopted.
With ambient light
In the Concept EQT, a large panoramic glass roof with a lasered starry sky stretches across the interior, but it probably won't reach series production either.
What will remain, however, is the ambient lighting on the center console, doors and in the footwell, which is not yet available in this segment, and the practical storage compartment for important documents above the instrument cluster.
To ensure that the offspring in particular can be adequately entertained while driving, the Concept EQT has numerous USB ports for an individual program.
Shorter variant in prospect
For customers who define "small and compact" differently than the developers and designers at Mercedes-Benz, the T-Class will later also be launched with a shortened version.
It then measures around 4.60 meters in length and, like the larger variant, can also be ordered as an all-electric EQT model.
