Mercedes claims that in Sport mode and equipped with the 19-inch AMG alloys, its soon-to-be-released flagship EV is the “first production car in the world with a Cd value starting from 0.20”. Which is very slippery indeed.

By “production car”, what Mercedes actually means is “series production car”. The Volkswagen XL1 and General Motors EV1 are both slipperier than the EQS, with drag coefficients of 0.189Cd and 0.19Cd respectively, but they were built in comparatively tiny numbers and never put into proper, full-scale production.

Whichever way you look at it, barring any announcements from Merc’s rivals, when it’s launched this August the EQS will be the most aerodynamically efficient car you can buy.

Mercedes puts this down to its purpose-built EV platform, which meant the designers could go with a smooth “one-bow design” with short overhangs and a rounded silhouette. This is no three-box sedan, like an S-, E- or C-Class, and nor is it a CLS-style ‘coupedan’.

We won’t get to see what the EQS’s exterior actually looks like for a couple of weeks yet – you can click on these blue words to read all about the interior – but the pics above should give you a decent idea of what to expect. There’s full-width light bars front and rear, no creases down the flanks, a clamshell bonnet and “Black Panel” grille (mainly for styling, not cooling. Because EV) with little three-pointed star motifs.

The EQS will be built alongside the S-Class in a carbon-neutral factory in Germany. It’s expected to feature a 100kWh battery, have a range of around 700km and go on sale this August. More as we have it.

STORY Tom Harrison