The Mercedes EQG drags the past into the future

Three and a half years ago the Hollywood legend and ardent G fan got then Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche to promise that Merc’s EQ electrification programme would include the daddy of all Mercedes‘ 4x4s. Now here it is: the EQG concept unveiled at the Munich Motor Show and heading for a production future soon. 

Hasn’t changed much, has it? The architecture is still as upright and angular as ever, the familiar design cues – the window and door shapes, the door handles, the round headlights, the spare wheel hanging on the back door – looking like they belong in a world long before electrification. And a cutting-edge electric machine on a ladder-frame chassis with a live rear axle? 

That's the reality of the EQG – a mix of ancient and modern or as Mercedes has it, "G-class DNA beamed into the EQ age". Mercedes says the result will be "uncompromising" over rough terrain but stops short of saying the EQG will be as unstoppable as the combustion-engined G-class. 

It could actually best it off-road: with four motors, one at each wheel and all individually controllable, the instant torque of electric power, high and low ratios in a selectable two-speed gearbox, and all the batteries tucked away low down inside the chassis rails for a low centre of gravity, it might ascend, descend, clamber and swim like never before. Presumably, there will be issues for wading depth with all those high-voltage batteries. All Mercedes is saying about its abilities at the moment is that it will "offer unique driving characteristics both on- and off-road." 

Unmistakable as a G-Class, and specifically the radically-updated but hardly visually-changed 2018-introduced model, the EQG does display its electric credentials to the world. The biggest update is the black panel grille in place of the traditional radiator grille, but you still get the big Mercedes star at its centre – this one lights up though. Other lighting effects on the body include strips of LEDs to highlight the side protective body cladding – already noticeable thanks to the concept's two-tone body finish – and more LED strips in the roof rack. 

There's no date for its introduction yet, but if the Terminator has anything to do with it, the first all-electric G Wagen is unlikely to be far away.