While we weren’t expecting deliveries of the 2020 Mercedes-Benz EQC in the U.S. until next year, full production planned to start this summer has reportedly been delayed three months due to issues producing battery packs, according to Handelsblatt.
The 2020 EQC was revealed back in September with a 80 kWh battery pack with “up to 200 miles” of range and dropping 402 horsepower and 564 lb-ft of torque through two electric motors. It was set to go into full production by June of this year, but most of its deliveries have had to be pushed back to November, Handelsblatt reports.
Some cars will still be delivered to select customers in June, apparently, but the rest will have to wait until battery supplier Accumotive, which is a subsidiary of Daimler, can ramp up production of the EQC’s battery, according to Carscoops.
Jalopnik has reached out to Mercedes-Benz concerning the delay and will update when we have more.
While the delays shouldn’t be too big of a deal, especially for those of us in the U.S. who expect deliveries in 2020, it will put the EQC a few months behind the Audi E-Tron crossover in other markets.
It also marks a somewhat troubling trend of issues with EV production, as the Jaguar I-Pace also had a reported issue with delayed deliveries due to production initially struggling to meet demand.
As the market for EVs grows with more and more models, it will be interesting to see how automakers and suppliers fare in scaling up production, if more demand is put on the current group of battery and battery material suppliers.
Until then, we’ll likely continue to see companies like Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar prioritize certain groups to meet announced delivery dates, while everybody else waits until they can scale up production.
Via Carscoops