So I am in the last two months of my EQS 580 SUV and I have a problem. I cannot discuss the terms of an extension on the lease until closer to expirarion, there does not seem to be any information available on the possible release of a new model, and if I want another car, such as a lucid, I have to order it - in fact, I had to order it already just in case. I think I would prefer another EQS SUV to the Lucid, but I need to know if there is any MB option pretty soon or, if I cance the Lucid, I will lose my deposit. I may already be at that point.

But really, I have never experienced a car company offering so little or such conflicting information on the new model/model year release. Does anyone have any information on the matter that might help here?

 

I believe the official word is the production headed for the US has been paused as of September 1, with no clear indication when or if it will begin again. They are aggressively selling off the remaining models at dealerships. I doubt they will clarify or begin importing again before you need your next vehicle. You are in a great position to get a killer deal on a new 2025 or to a lesser extent one of the few 2026 already imported.

 

Thanks, Nath. My dealer spent weeks trying to locate a 2025 EQS 580 equipped as i wanted, and there were none in the US. The option that was hard to find was the special (UV/sound insulating) glass. Anyway, there are none to be had. I guess my only option is to try to negotiate a lease extension with a kickout if a new model becomes available - or get the Lucid and forget about the MB.

 

I don't think you are going to get information any time soon. This is directly the result of Trump's tariffs, so will end up in the Supreme Court. Until that court decides, everything will be up in the air. Nobody knows how this court will decide. If they decided on the merits, there is no way that tariffs (a form of tax) can be imposed unilaterally by the executive. But we know this Supreme Court has no interest in the Constitutional restrictions on Executive power or the assignment of taxing authority solely to Congress.

Mercedes is being prudent in holding off shipping vehicles to the US, especially EVs which Trump has a particular disdain for, until there is some clarity as to what the rule of law, if any, in the US is.

In your situation, the Lucid is likely the best bet given the situation today.

 

ehildum- Thank you for the excellent analysis and advice. I, a person who reads news probably 25% of my waking hours, cannot believe I did not think of, and no one at Mercedes dealerships has mentioned, tariffs. But I am sure you are right. I'm very grateful - you've resolved a point of considerable aggravation for me, though the reality of greater situation remains. Best-Alfred

 

The Trump tariffs.

 

I am sorry, I am not sure what you are trying to say here, other than you might agree with me?

 

I find it absurd to put 100% of the blame on one person, and not analyzing what led up to it.
Under lib regimes, subsidies, and policies were put in place to elevate the EV to a most favored status.
California followed in suit and all but mandated EVs.
Market solutions were not welcome or sought.
It was top down, centralized planning and imposition.
Once the realities of demand, utility, economics were understood, playtime was over.
Now an administration is allowing market demand and market forces to align the segment.
It looks like, to the untrained eye, that EVs are being targeted, and persecuted, so the zealots have to defend their increasingly implausible positions into…IT’s ALL TRUMP’s FAULT.
TDS at its finest.

 

Normally, I would agree with you; however, these are hardly normal times.
It is true that policies were put in place to encourage EV adoption, but those were largely tax credits and did nothing to affect the base cost of good sold. Instead they were largely an external to the sales process benefit that boosted sales of one type of vehicle (and arguably are a partial match to the policies and credits that support ICE vehicles which are also heavily subsidized in the US via below market fuel costs).
I agree that a true market solution would be ideal, but we are seeing that it is not acceptable to this government, which is forcing continued use of coal despite the complete collapse of the coal market. In a free market, coal would be replaced by lower cost gas and renewable energy as was occurring. So please don't claim that Trump or Republicans are interested in allowing technology via the free market; clearly, they are not and are imposing top down centralized planning in the energy markets instead of allowing the natural evolution to renewables take place.
Getting back to automobiles, the polices for EV adoption took place through public regulatory and legislative processes with long lead times built in to allow businesses to plan for the changes over the course of multiple years to decades.
Trump, on the other hand, dropped an unexpected tariff overnight, with no lead times, and dubious legal basis. After a pushback, he suspended the tariffs for ninety days, then over that period of time has changed his position and tariffs multiple times earning the sobriquet TACO. So the level of tariffs on automobiles is not clear. Next week will it be 0%, 25%, or something else? Nobody, even Trump himself, knows. How can you plan and make money under these circumstances? Do you import a car, and plan to sell it assuming a 25% import tariff on top of everything else? What happens if the tariff is 0% the day the car arrives, but 25% the day before and the day after, as could easily happen with competing rulings from the judiciary? How do you price then?
Far better to wait until the question and amounts of tariffs are settled, which will take a few more months. In the mean time, dealers can sell the cars made in the US or already here, and they will be sure to add market adjustments as vehicles become scarce. The dealers will be fine, and the manufacturers, selling on a world wide basis, will be okay with their non US sales, and the burst in sales they will get when the tariff question is finally settled. You can be sure post tariff question pricing will take into account the interim market adjustments that dealers will have made.

So, in the end, yes, this is solely due to Trump and his tariffs.

 

One thing I've never heard figured in to the hidden cost of ICE vehicles...the cost of maintaining a military presence in the middle east as a deterrent to bad actors messing up the oil flow to the worldwide market. I don't know what the cost is, but it is not non trivial. Free market says wind and solar are the cheapest sources of energy, albeit with certain limitations. But you don't need a Navy fleet to defend a wind farm in Iowa.

 

A very large portion of solar panels in the market are imported from China. The panels are shipped by container ships across large oceans. Commercial shipping is prone to piracy, and lately Chinese naval vessels have taken to colliding with ships in international waters. But hey, let’s just close down our Navy and let it go mad max, ocean style.

 

I can answer this one for you as it was an exercise I had to do in high school. Basically, adding up insurance, taxes, maintenance, fuel, depreciation, etc. a new ICE car will cost the same as its purchase price over the next three years. While this exercise was a long time ago, I don't think a lot has changed, so it probably is a reasonable estimate today.

However, perhaps this is too much the direct cost to the consumer.

 

Clearly you will want the market to rule for farmers as well. None of this government hand out stuff.

 

I haven’t really studied how a completely free market for farmers would compare to the current modeling.
But let’s keep a few facts in mind.
Sometimes the subsidies are in reward for more production, and sometimes the subsidies are to keep acreage out of production.
A lot of that is taken into account by exporting farm products, mostly grains, and other commodities.
Federal agencies can limit exports to certain parts of the world, or increase them at a whim.
Such policies are completely out of the hands of farmers, who cannot turn their production around on a dime.
The State department can use exports like an element of defense policy, or as an offensive weapon to punish, or to gain leverage.
Any market with intricate ties to government agencies and policies is extremely difficult to manage, predict, or measure.
We can’t have no government at all, and we certainly cannot have an overbearing government.
We need it to be lean and mean in terms of effectiveness, not as a tyrannical force over the electorate.

 

Try something new. Go with the Lucid. There are political forces at play, and your time table doesn't have room for it. If you are low tolerance on uncertainty, go with the Lucid. My vote for the Lucid.

 

You really should look at the total farming subsidies going to large agribusiness. Water subsidies, legacy water rights, discounted fertilizer, lower taxes on fuel, fallow payments, etc. Then there are the huge prices supports. Farming takes 80% of the water in the state of California, but in droughts only city dwellers are required to restrict water usage. I used to live at the edge of town in the agricultural area of California during one of those droughts. I was required to limit my water use with fines if I used too much or used water the wrong way, yet at the end of the street that ******* Pombo was flood irrigating his fields on a 115 degree day. He evaporated more water in an hour than I used in five years. And remember, that was water that he only paid a fraction of the production cost for, and at least an order of magnitude less that what I had to pay for the same thing.

He was of course a good Republican that did not want government handouts or welfare.

 

A good republicans, or any republicans in California, with any influence is rarer than hen’s teeth.
I used to live in California, back in the day, and I loved it.
Learned how to skydive, scuba dive, and was close to hang gliding, until my room mate almost bought the far.
But what has been done to California, I wouldn’t move back there for all the money in the DNC.

 

This is very off topic at this point. However, you are admitting that you have no idea what the current situation in California is as you have not been here. I have been here 40+ years, and it is a much nicer place to live now than it was when I moved in. The sky in the SF Bay Area is now clear, not the yellow haze every year from smog. The strict air pollution controls work, and the increasing numbers of EVs are helping even more. The sooner the ICE vehicle market collapses, the better. We need to stop subsidizing gasoline asap.

 

You were well on your way to your green daydream, until the cherry popped on EVs.
Now, all you EVers are going to be treated like suckers and useful idiots by Greasy Gavin, Karen Bass(a real live Karen) and your comedy of errors policy makers.
Before I left California visibility at all the major cities(except LA) was reported consistently at 60-70 miles.
Maybe LA has reduced their smog, but only because they are strangling every facet of the oil and gas industry out of the State.
Enjoy it while you still can.
Hopefully you don’t have to learn the hard way, like Spain did.

 

“The sooner the ICE vehicle market collapses, the better”…. “Collapses”, what an interesting word choice, in line and consistent with the widespread redrum narrative within and among the blue folks. What and WHO else are on your collapses wish list?

Anyhow, I too am in the market for a new vehicle to replace my current EQS580 at lease-end in February. Except for the EQS, plenty of German cars available to buy/lease off the lot or to factory order. Unless you leave the politically operated brain jammer enabled, tariffs don’t target Mercedes EQSs only. Could it be that the market has spoken and the EQS pays the ultimate price due to its too innovative design, unfinished engineering and wrong/obsolete model designation name? After all, next to the new Mercedes CLA with EQ Technology and the new GLC with EQ Technology, the EQS looks and feels 10-15 years older.

 

I still don't get all the vitriol. I drive an EQE 500 - 402hp and 633 lb. ft. of torque. Fast and comfortable. My wife drives a BMW M240i with the magnificent B58. There's room for both EV and ICE. If your motivation is purely environmental, perhaps this isn't the right forum for that discussion.

 

Collapsing markets for products is a natural outcome of a free market economy when technological advances or societal changes cause the market for a product that no longer fits the needs of consumers to disappear. We are seeing it today with coal, which, in the US at least, has no natural market and will soon go away as alternative energy sources are now far more economical solutions. This will improve the environment as a beneficial side effect, removing the largest source of man made radioactive material release (occurring both during mining and when burned) in this country. (Don't take this to mean I am opposed to nuclear energy, nuclear baseline generation would be a very good thing to have in this country.)

 

I have wondered this for a long time as well. Most of us here have congregated because we've driven both, and like one more than the other. You have both, I have both. I think it speaks to broader problems in our society that certain people feel the need to tear others down, and feel like they've 'won'. I miss the 1970's and 1980's when we got along with our neighbors, we relied on experts, there were three news networks around which we all broadly agreed on a set of facts, and the need to destroy someone else for disagreeing was largely not present. Not a perfect time, but I'd take it over now. I have personally found removing all social media from my life years ago was helpful to not silo myself.

 

Excerpt from a writing called "Restful". I am 70 and can relate to this:

We were born in one world… and grew up in another.
A world where summers meant open windows, the hum of a box fan, and the smell of fresh-cut grass.
Where neighbors waved from their porches, and if your bike chain broke, you didn’t Google it — you knocked on a door and someone came out with a wrench.
We lived in a world built on patience.
We waited for letters to arrive.
We waited for the library to open.
We waited for our favorite song to play again on the radio — and when it finally did, it felt like magic.
Then, almost overnight, everything changed.
Phones shrank. Music became invisible.
News arrived before the coffee finished brewing.
We learned to type, to swipe, to tap.
We learned to talk to machines — and to have them talk back.

The ICE automobile was part of an innocence I grew up with, and as much as I love my EQS EV, I too associate the ICE car with stories my dad told me, of how he was the chauffier for his father driving a Model T back in 1919, and how my father described how amazing my 1st car, a 56 Lincoln was, compared to this Model T, to the early ICE vehicles of the 20s, 30s, and 40s.

For me personally, I think it is healthy to embrace both, the past and the future. I think there needs to be both, and I personally love everything about internal combustion engine vehicles and at the same time I welcome the advancement of EVs and am enjoying their strengths, albeit fraught with the associated growing pains all new technologies come with . . .

Who knows how long ICE vehicles will be around? We can still keep evolving and learning. My Ford Powerboost pickup is pretty cool, 90% ICE and an EV motor in the transmission that is charged up only via regenerative braking enables this pickup to obtain better fuel economy in town than on the highway! What an incredible marriage between ICE and EV!