Mercedes-Benz pushes electric adoption with EQ Ready app

Mercedes-Benz is using an app to show motorists they’re (probably) ready for an electric vehicle.

The EQ Ready app analyses a driver’s day-to-day drives to see if they could be conducted on pure-electric power in a plug-in hybrid or pure electric vehicle.

The application also shows charge infrastructure over the course of a driver’s journey, and lays out how much energy would be required to recharge the car each day.

According to Mercedes-Benz, anonymised data from more than 1.6 million journeys around the world shows 90 per cent of journeys are shorter than 50km, and 96 per cent are shorter than 100km.

Based on the data, 90 per cent of journeys could be carried out on the claimed battery range of its EQ plug-in hybrid models.

“Electric cars and hybrid models are much more suitable for everyday use than most people think,” said Sabine Scheunert, vice president for digital and IT Mercedes-Benz Cars marketing & sales.

“With the new EQ Ready App the user receives even more functionalities in even more countries – around 30 worldwide – and can find out information such as how well developed the charging infrastructure already is in numerous markets.”

Mercedes-Benz launched its first mainstream electric vehicle, the EQC SUV, in Australia late in 2019.

By the end of 2020 it plans to offer five pure-electric vehicles and 20 plug-in hybrid vehicles globally. It plans to have 10 pure-electric vehicles on sale by 2025.