When charging via Mercedes me Charge, 100 percent of the energy comes from renewable resources. In order to promote the use of green electricity, Mercedes acquires guarantees of origin in the required quantity. For the first three years after vehicle purchase, there is no added cost to customers for Green Charging.
The cobalt content in the cathodes of the battery cells of the EQS is less than ten percent and has been significantly reduced compared to the previous battery generation.
The roof of Factory 56, EQS's production facility, is equipped with 12,000 photovoltaic modules. These have a maximum output of around 5000 kWp and can thus cover around 30 percent of the factory's energy needs on an annual average. All in all, the energy requirement of Factory 56 is 25 percent lower than that of other assembly buildings. The bottom line is that Factory 56 will be a zero-carbon factory - completely CO2-neutral.
The components of the EQS made proportionately from resource-saving materials (recycled and renewable raw materials) weigh 80 kilograms.
With a cd figure from as low as 0.20, the EQS is the world's most aerodynamic production car. Compared to an aerodynamically good electric car (cd value 0.23), this delivers a range advantage of four (WLTP cycle) to five percent (Mercedes long-distance measurement).
40 percent of the roof area of Factory 56 is greened, and recycled concrete was used for the first time in the head building.
Since 2005, Mercedes-Benz has subjected its vehicles to the stringent requirements of an environmental certificate in accordance with ISO standard TR 14062, now known as the 360° Environmental Check.
The floor coverings of the EQS use a new yarn made of regenerated nylon. One ton of this yarn saves over 6.5 tons of CO2 compared to virgin material.
The steel processed for the EQS at the Mercedes-Benz stamping plants consists of 80 percent secondary steel, most of which is obtained from recycled steel scrap.
The battery certificate stands for the long service life of the high-voltage batteries. It is valid up to a term of eight years or 160,000 kilometres.
And after use in the car, a second life is possible: for example, in an energy storage system from Mercedes-Benz Energy. Together with its partners, the company has already brought three large-scale storage systems with a total of around 50 MWh of energy from automotive battery systems onto the German grid. The first 2nd-life battery storage system was connected to the grid in October 2016 in Lünen, Westphalia.
The majority of suppliers, who account for more than 75 per cent of the annual purchasing volume, want to supply only CO2-neutrally produced parts in the future. They have declared their willingness to do so in an ambition letter.
Mercedes-Benz already started to create transparency in the complex cobalt supply chains for battery cells in 2018. For this purpose, 120 suppliers were identified and 60 audits were carried out according to the guidelines of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).
The production of the highly complex lithium-ion batteries at the Hedelfingen plant, part of the Mercedes-Benz site in Stuttgart-Untertürkheim, will be CO2-neutral from 2022. As part of strategic partnerships, Mercedes-Benz has also agreed to purchase battery cells manufactured in a CO2-neutral manner, starting with the EQS.
