EQ Ready App – ready for electric mobility? The EQ Ready App has new functions to provide decision making support
Does an electric car or plug-in hybrid suit my everyday life? By analysing their individual driving behaviour, the EQ Ready App helps drivers who are wondering whether it would be practical to switch. Since the launch of the app three years ago, it has been used over 1.6 million times. The updated version of the app is available as of now and offers new functions such as the 7-day challenge, a virtual charging simulation, plus an improved user experience through its new design.
“Our EQ Ready App helps drivers find out whether an electrified vehicle suits their individual requirements – completely irrespective of the brand of their current vehicle. This is important, as electric cars and hybrid models are much more suitable for everyday use than most people think. 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. This makes the app the initial but key step towards the electric mobility turnaround for its users,” says Sabine Scheunert, Vice President Digital & IT Mercedes-Benz Cars Marketing & Sales.
7-day challenge
After the App starts, the individual 7-day challenge begins in which the user’s everyday routes are analyzed with their consent. The self-determination principle applies: personalized data are only collected if the customer explicitly agrees beforehand. At the end, the app uses the individual mobility behavior to indicate whether the user is suited to a plug-in hybrid or electric vehicle from Mercedes-Benz. During this challenge, the user is shown daily new information on their journeys and on all aspects of electric mobility at Mercedes-Benz.
In addition, the EQ Ready App can also calculate routes, including the energy requirements and individual consumption. The required energy for the route entered is derived from route analyses of traffic data providers and the resulting speed profiles. All charging options along the route are also displayed. On the basis of the approximately 1.6 million journeys analysed anonymously to date, it was calculated how long the journeys are on average. . The results show that:
- 90 percent of all journeys are shorter than 50 kilometres and
- 96 percent of all journeys are shorter than 100 kilometres
The users’ average distance per journey varies from market to market. The result is promising and shows: 90 percent of the journeys recorded could be completed exclusively under electric power with Mercedes-Benz’s current plug-in hybrid models.
The app not only checks whether the destinations of the user could also be reached with electric drive, it also informs them every day of the power requirement and the available charging infrastructure along their routes. The user also has the opportunity to simulate the charging times for different charging solutions.
The application is already helping to identify available charging stations in over 30 countries. The EQ Ready App allows all interested parties a maximum of transparency even before the first test drive to find out the individual benefit of the EQ Power models. The EQ Ready App has also recently become available in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.
